Method and system for automated project management of excavation requests

ABSTRACT

A method and system for method for automated work project management. The methods and systems described herein provide automated excavation mark-out verification of a user request to excavate at a desired location. User-defined excavation information is automatically verified and corrected if necessary. One or more municipalities and one or more owners of the existing underground utility infrastructure components are automatically notified of the request to excavate at the user-defined location. The method and system eliminate a need for a user to correctly determine all required information for user requested excavation, and reduces a possibility of the user requesting markings or excavating at a wrong location.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This U.S. utility patent application is a continuation-in-part (CIP) ofU.S. utility patent application Ser. No. 13/780,583, filed on Feb. 28,2013, that issued into U.S. Pat. No. 9,342,806, on May 17, 2016, thecontents of all of which are incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to project management of excavation requests.More specifically, it relates to a method and system for automated workproject management including automated excavation mark-out verification.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The are many service business, such as telephone line installation,cable television cable installation, new construction, maintenanceprojects, lawn care projects, landscaping projects, handyman services,home improvement services, delivery services, janitorial and cleaningprojects that require accept a new job and dispatching workers tocomplete the new job.

There are many problems associated with dispatching such workers. Oneproblem is that it is difficult to find a worker who is currentlygeographically closet to a new work location.

Another problem is that it is difficult to estimate how long it willtake a worker to physically arrive at a new work location. Anotherproblem is that it is difficult to monitor how many hours a workeractually spend on the new work project.

Another problem is that it is difficult to confirm that a worker hasactually completed a new work product. Another problem is that it isdifficult to confirm that a requirements of a new work project arecorrect for a given physical geographic location. For example, if a newwork project included a request to maintain overhead telephone wires andthe wires were actually underground and not overhead, the new workproject should be canceled or adjusted.

Another problem is that it is difficult to timely send out an invoicewhen a new work project has been completed. Another problem is that itis difficult to have workers who are working on a new work project toupdate additions or removals of physical objects such as utility poles,wires, etc.

Another problem is that when excavation is required an excavator makesan excavation request and is typically required to manually provideinformation about the excavation site and manually select the site on amap. This often leads to errors where permission to excavate is grantedat a wrong location and/or underground infrastructure components are notproperly marked before excavation.

For example, the State New Jersey has recently established a One-CallDamage Prevention System (see e.g., N.J.S.A. 48:2-73 et seq. andenabling rules—N.J.A.C. 14:2). All operators of underground facilitiesare required to participate in the One-Call Prevention System. Inaddition, all excavators are required to notify the One-Call DamagePrevention System prior to any excavation activity.

All fifty States and most Canadian Provinces have similar laws,regulations, procedures and One Call Centers. Because the One-CallDamage Prevention System covers the entire United States, it has becomepart of the standard operating procedure for all excavators. Therefore,anything that can be done to ensure that an excavation mark-out iscompleted correctly and in a timely manner benefits the state and localgovernments as well as excavators.

As an example, the State of New Jersey has established a One Call Center(OCC) to function as the central point of contact and communicationsbetween the excavator and the underground utility operator. An excavatoris required to contact the OCC and provide very specific informationconcerning the proposed excavation. This information is generallyreferred to as the “mark-out request.” The purpose of the mark-outrequest is to ensure all excavation is correctly identified and itsphysical relationship to underground infrastructure components can bedetermined and properly marked-out on a surface level.

The OCC accepts the mark-out request and creates an electronic ticket.The electronic ticket is forwarded to the various underground utilityoperators that may be impacted by the excavation. The utility operatorsare required to physically mark the location of the undergroundfacilities in the field on a surface level.

There are a number of was to submit a mark out request to an OCC. In NewJersey, one of the methods is using the NJOCC ITIC web portal. The ITICallows an excavator to fill out the request on line. The excavator logsinto the ITIC web site, manually fills out the information requiredincluding a location for the excavation and manually picks map gridsthat overlay the location where the excavation is proposed. Errors canand do occur at with such manual entry of excavation data.

Thus, it is desirable to solve some of these and other problemsassociated with project management including excavation requests.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention, someof the problems associated with are overcome. A method and system forautomated work project management presented including automatedexcavation mark-out verification.

The methods and systems described herein provide automated excavationmark-out verification of a user request to excavate at a desiredlocation. User-defined excavation information is automatically verifiedand corrected if necessary. One or more municipalities and one or moreowners of the existing underground utility infrastructure components areautomatically notified of the user request to excavate at theuser-defined location. The method and system eliminate a need for a userto correctly determine all required information for user requestedexcavation, and reduces a possibility of the user requesting markings orexcavating at a wrong location.

The foregoing and other features and advantages of preferred embodimentsof the present invention will be more readily apparent from thefollowing detailed description. The detailed description proceeds withreferences to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention are described withreference to the following drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary electronicinformation display system;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary electronicinformation display system;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary networking protocolstack;

FIG. 4 is block diagram illustrating an exemplary cloud communicationsnetwork;

FIGS. 5A-5D are a flow diagram for a method for automated work projectmanagement;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a graphical user interface displaying anelectronic map illustrating additional details of the method of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a graphical user interface forsmart phone;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for automated workproject management;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating additional details of the methodof FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for automated workproject management;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for automated workproject management;

FIGS. 12A, 12B, and 12C are a flow diagram illustrating a method forautomated project management excavation mark-out verification;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary excavation mark-outverification;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary excavation mark-outverification; and

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for automated projectmanagement excavation mark-out verification.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary electronicinformation system 10. The exemplary electronic system 10 includes, butis not limited to, one or more target network devices 12, 14, 16 (onlythree of which are illustrated) each with one or more processors and acomputer readable medium.

The one or more target network devices 12, 14, 16 include, but are notlimited to, multimedia capable desktop and laptop computers, tabletcomputers, facsimile machines, mobile phones, non-mobile phones, smartphones, Internet phones, Internet appliances, personal digital/dataassistants (PDA), two-way pagers, digital cameras, portable gameconsoles (PLAY STATION PORTABLE by SONY, GAME BOY by SONY, NINTENDO DSI,etc.), non-portable game consoles (XBOX by MICROSOFT, PLAY STATION bySONY, WII by NINTENDO, etc.), cable television (CATV) set-top boxes,digital televisions including high definition television (HDTV),three-dimensional (3D) televisions and other types of network devices.

The one or more smart network devices 12, 14, 16 also include smartphones such as the IPHONE by APPLE, Inc., BLACKBERRY STORM and otherBLACKBERRY models by RESEARCH IN MOTION, Inc. (RIM), DROID by MOTOROLA,Inc. HTC, Inc. other types of smart phones, etc. However, the presentinvention is not limited to such smart phone devices, and more, fewer orother devices can be used to practice the invention.

A “smart phone” is a mobile phone that offers more advanced computingability and connectivity than a contemporary basic feature phone. Smartphones and feature phones may be thought of as handheld computersintegrated with a mobile telephone, but while most feature phones areable to run applications based on platforms such as JAVA ME, a smartphone usually allows the user to install and run more advancedapplications. Smart phones and/or tablet computers run completeoperating system software providing a platform for applicationdevelopers.

The operating systems include the IPHONE OS, ANDROID, WINDOWS, etc.IPHONE OS is a proprietary operating system for the APPLE IPHONE.ANDRIOD is an open source operating system platform backed by Google,along with major hardware and software developers (such as INTEL, HTC,ARM, MOTOROLA and SAMSUNG, etc.), that form the Open Handset Alliance.

The one or more smart network devices 12, 14, 16 also include tabletcomputers such as the IPAD, by APPLE, Inc., the HP TABLET, by HEWLETTPACKARD, Inc., the PLAYBOOK, by RIM, Inc., the TABLET, by SONY, Inc.

The target network devices 12, 14, 16 are in communications with acommunications network 18 via one or more wired and/or wirelesscommunications interfaces. The communications network 18 includes, butis not limited to, communications over a wire connected to the targetnetwork devices, wireless communications, and other types ofcommunications using one or more communications and/or networkingprotocols. In one embodiment, the communications network 18 alsoincludes a cloud communications network 18′.

Plural server network devices 20, 22, 24, 26 (only four of which areillustrated) each with one or more processors and a computer readablemedium include one or more associated databases 20′, 22′, 24′, 26′. Theplural network devices 20, 22, 24, 26 are in communications with the oneor more target devices 12, 14, 16 via the cloud communications network18′.

The plural server network devices 20, 22, 24 26, include, but are notlimited to, World Wide Web servers, Internet servers, search engineservers, electronic information display servers, social networking siteservers, file servers, other types of electronic information servers,and other types of server network devices (e.g., edge servers,firewalls, routers, gateways, etc.).

The plural server network devices 20, 22, 24, 26 also include, but arenot limited to, network servers used for information providers, etc.

The communications network 18 includes, but is not limited to, a wiredand/or wireless communications network comprising: the Internet, anintranet, a Local Area Network (LAN), a LAN (WiLAN), a Wide Area Network(WAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), wireless personal area network(WPAN), Wireless Fidelity Network (Wi-Fi), Worldwide Interoperabilityfor Microwave Access Network (WiMAX), a Public Switched TelephoneNetwork (PSTN), a cloud communications network 18′ and/or other types ofwired and/or wireless communications networks 18.

The communications network 18 may include one or more gateways, routers,bridges and/or switches. As is known in the art, a gateway connectscomputer networks using different network protocols and/or operating atdifferent transmission capacities. A router receives transmittedmessages and forwards them to their correct destinations over the mostefficient available route. A bridge is a device that connects networksusing the same communications protocols so that information can bepassed from one network device to another. A switch is a device thatfilters and forwards packets between network segments based on somepre-determined sequence (e.g., timing, sequence number, etc.).

An operating environment for the network devices of the exemplaryelectronic information display system 10 include a processing systemwith one or more high speed Central Processing Unit(s) (CPU),processors, one or more memories and/or other types of computer readablemediums. In accordance with the practices of persons skilled in the artof computer programming, the present invention is described below withreference to acts and symbolic representations of operations orinstructions that are performed by the processing system, unlessindicated otherwise. Such acts and operations or instructions arereferred to as being “computer-executed,” “CPU-executed,” or“processor-executed.”

It will be appreciated that acts and symbolically represented operationsor instructions include the manipulation of electrical information bythe CPU or processor. An electrical system represents data bits whichcause a resulting transformation or reduction of the electricalinformation or biological information, and the maintenance of data bitsat memory locations in a memory system to thereby reconfigure orotherwise alter the CPU's or processor's operation, as well as otherprocessing of information. The memory locations where data bits aremaintained are physical locations that have particular electrical,magnetic, optical, or organic properties corresponding to the data bits.

The data bits may also be maintained on a computer readable mediumincluding magnetic disks, optical disks, organic memory, and any othervolatile (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM)) or non-volatile (e.g.,Read-Only Memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.) mass storage system readableby the CPU. The computer readable medium includes cooperating orinterconnected computer readable medium, which exist exclusively on theprocessing system or can be distributed among multiple interconnectedprocessing systems that may be local or remote to the processing system.

Wireless Interfaces

In one embodiment of the present invention, the wireless interfaces onnetwork devices 12, 14, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26 include but are not limitedto, 3G and/or 4G IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.15.4(ZigBee), “Wireless Fidelity” (Wi-Fi), “Worldwide Interoperability forMicrowave Access” (WiMAX), ETSI High Performance Radio Metropolitan AreaNetwork (HIPERMAN) or “RF Home” wireless interfaces. In anotherembodiment of the present invention, the wireless sensor device mayinclude an integral or separate Bluetooth and/or infra data association(IrDA) module for wireless Bluetooth or wireless infraredcommunications. However, the present invention is not limited to such anembodiment and other 802.11xx and other types of wireless interfaces canalso be used.

As is known in the art, an 802.11b is a short-range wireless networkstandard. The IEEE 802.11b standard defines wireless interfaces thatprovide up to 11 Mbps wireless data transmission to and from wirelessdevices over short ranges. 802.11a is an extension of the 802.11b andcan deliver speeds up to 54M bps. 802.11g deliver speeds on par with802.11a. However, other 802.11XX interfaces can also be used and thepresent invention is not limited to the 802.11 protocols defined. TheIEEE 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g standards are incorporated herein byreference.

As is known in the art, Wi-Fi is a type of 802.11xx interface, whether802.11b, 802.11a, dual-band, etc. Wi-Fi devices include an RF interfacessuch as 2.4 GHz for 802.11b or 802.11g and 5 GHz for 802.11a. Moreinformation on Wi-Fi can be found at the domain name “www.weca.net.”

As is known in the art, 802.15.4 (Zigbee) is low data rate networkstandard used for mesh network devices such as sensors, interactivetoys, smart badges, remote controls, and home automation. The 802.15.4standard provides data rates of 250 kbps, 40 kbps, and 20 kbps., twoaddressing modes; 16-bit short and 64-bit IEEE addressing, support forcritical latency devices, such as joysticks, Carrier Sense MultipleAccess/Collision Avoidance, (CSMA-CA) channel access, automatic networkestablishment by a coordinator, fully handshaked protocol for transferreliability, power management to ensure low power consumption formulti-month to multi-year battery usage and up to 16 channels in the 2.4GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band (Worldwide), 10channels in the 915 MHz (US) and one channel in the 868 MHz band(Europe). The IEEE 802.15.4-2003 standard is incorporated herein byreference. More information on 802.15.4 and ZigBee can be found at thedomain name “www.ieee802.org” and “www.zigbee.org” respectively.

As is known in the art, WiMAX is an industry trade organization formedby leading communications component and equipment companies to promoteand certify compatibility and interoperability of broadband wirelessaccess equipment that conforms to the IEEE 802.16XX and ETSI HIPERMAN.HIPERMAN is the European standard for metropolitan area networks (MAN).

The IEEE The 802.16a and 802.16g standards are wireless MAN technologystandard that provides a wireless alternative to cable, DSL and T1/E1for last mile broadband access. It is also used as complimentarytechnology to connect IEEE 802.11XX hot spots to the Internet.

The IEEE 802.16a standard for 2-11 GHz is a wireless MAN technology thatprovides broadband wireless connectivity to fixed, portable and nomadicdevices. It provides up to 50-kilometers of service area range, allowsusers to get broadband connectivity without needing direct line of sightwith the base station, and provides total data rates of up to 280 Mbpsper base station, which is enough bandwidth to simultaneously supporthundreds of businesses with T1/E1-type connectivity and thousands ofhomes with DSL-type connectivity with a single base station. The IEEE802.16g provides up to 100 Mbps.

The IEEE 802.16e standard is an extension to the approved IEEE802.16/16a/16g standard. The purpose of 802.16e is to add limitedmobility to the current standard which is designed for fixed operation.

The ESTI HIPERMAN standard is an interoperable broadband fixed wirelessaccess standard for systems operating at radio frequencies between 2 GHzand 11 GHz.

The IEEE 802.16a, 802.16e and 802.16g standards are incorporated hereinby reference. More information on WiMAX can be found at the domain name“www.wimaxforum.org.” WiMAX can be used to provide a WLP.

The ETSI HIPERMAN standards TR 101 031, TR 101 475, TR 101 493-1 throughTR 101 493-3, TR 101 761-1 through TR 101 761-4, TR 101 762, TR 101763-1 through TR 101 763-3 and TR 101 957 are incorporated herein byreference. More information on ETSI standards can be found at the domainname “www.etsi.org.” ETSI HIPERMAN can be used to provide a WLP.

In one embodiment, of the invention, the wireless interfaces alsoinclude wireless personal area network (WPAN) interfaces. As is known inthe art, a WPAN is a personal area network for interconnecting devicescentered around an individual person's devices in which the connectionsare wireless. A WPAN interconnects all the ordinary computing andcommunicating devices that a person has on their desk (e.g. computer,etc.) or carry with them (e.g., PDA, mobile phone, smart phone, tablecomputer two-way pager, etc.)

A key concept in WPAN technology is known as “plugging in.” In the idealscenario, when any two WPAN-equipped devices come into close proximity(within several meters and/or feet of each other) or within a few milesand/or kilometers of a central server (not illustrated), they cancommunicate via wireless communications as if connected by a cable. WPANdevices can also lock out other devices selectively, preventing needlessinterference or unauthorized access to secure information. Zigbee is onewireless protocol used on WPAN networks such as cloud communicationsnetwork 18′.

However, the present invention is not limited to such wirelessinterfaces and wireless networks and more, fewer and/or other wirelessinterfaces can be used to practice the invention.

Wired Interfaces

In one embodiment of the present invention, the wired interfaces includewired interfaces and corresponding networking protocols for wiredconnections to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and/or acable television network (CATV) and/or satellite television networks(SATV) including HDTV that connect the network devices 12, 14, 16, 20,22, 24, 26 via one or more twisted pairs of copper wires, digitalsubscriber lines (e.g. DSL, ADSL, VDSL, etc.) coaxial cable, fiber opticcable, other connection media or other connection interfaces. The PSTNis any public switched telephone network provided by AT&T, GTE, Sprint,MCI, SBC, Verizon and others. The CATV is any cable television networkprovided by the Comcast, Time Warner, etc. However, the presentinvention is not limited to such wired interfaces and more, fewer and/orother wired interfaces can be used to practice the invention.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention include network devicesand wired and wireless interfaces that are compliant with all or part ofstandards proposed by the Institute of Electrical and ElectronicEngineers (IEEE), International TelecommunicationsUnion-Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU), EuropeanTelecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Internet Engineering TaskForce (IETF), U.S. National Institute of Security Technology (NIST),American National Standard Institute (ANSI), Wireless ApplicationProtocol (WAP) Forum, Bluetooth Forum, or the ADSL Forum. However,network devices based on other standards could also be used.

Exemplary Information Display System

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary electronicinformation display system 28. The exemplary electronic informationsystem display system includes, but is not limited to a target networkdevice (e.g., computer 12′, etc.) with an application 30 and a displaycomponent 32. The application 30 presents a graphical user interface(GUI) 34 on the display 32 component. The GUI 32 presents a multi-window36, 38, interface to a user.

In one embodiment of the invention, the application 30 is a softwareapplication. However, the present invention is not limited to thisembodiment and the application 30 can be hardware, firmware, hardwareand/or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, the application 30includes a cloud computing application 62. In another embodiment, theapplication 30/62 includes a smart phone application for a smart phoneor a tablet computer. However, the present invention is not limitedthese embodiments and other embodiments can be used to practice theinvention

In another embodiment, a portion of the application 30 is executing onthe target network devices 12, 14, 16 and another portion of theapplication 30/62 is executing on the server network devices 20, 22, 24,26. However, the present invention is not limited these embodiments andother embodiments can be used to practice the invention.

Exemplary Networking Protocol Stack

FIG. 3 a block diagram illustrating a layered protocol stack 38 fornetwork devices in the electronic information display system 10. Thelayered protocol stack 38 is described with respect to Internet Protocol(IP) suites comprising in general from lowest-to-highest, a link 42,network 44, transport 48 and application 56 layer. However, more orfewer layers could also be used, and different layer designations couldalso be used for the layers in the protocol stack 38 (e.g., layeringbased on the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model including fromlowest-to-highest, a physical, data-link, network, transport, session,presentation and application layer.).

The network devices 12, 14, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26 are connected to thecommunication network 18 with Network Interface Card (NIC) devicedrivers 40 in a link layer 42 for the actual hardware connecting thenetwork devices 12, 14, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26 to the communications network18. For example, the NIC device drivers 40 may include a serial portdevice driver, a modem device driver, an Ethernet device driver, awireless device driver, a wired device driver, etc. The device driversinterface with the actual hardware being used to connect the networkdevices to the communications network 18.

Media Access Control (MAC) is a data link layer 42 protocol. A MACaddress is a physical address of a device connected to a communicationsnetwork, expressed as a 48-bit hexadecimal number. A MAC address ispermanently assigned to each unit of most types of networking hardware,such as network interface cards (NICs), by manufacturers at the factory.

Above the link layer 42 is a network layer 44 (also called the InternetLayer for Internet Protocol suites). The network layer 44 includes, butis not limited to, an IP layer 46. However, more fewer or otherprotocols can also be used in the network layer 44, and the presentinvention is not limited to IP 46.

IP 46 is an addressing protocol designed to route traffic within anetwork or between networks. For more information on IP 46 see IETFRequest For Comments (RFC)-791, incorporated herein by reference. An IPaddress includes four sets of numbers divided by period (e.g., x.x.x.x)in the range of zero to 255. An IP address is a unique string of numbersthat identifies a device on an IP based network.

Above network layer 44 is a transport layer 48. The transport layer 48includes, but is not limited to, an optional Internet Group ManagementProtocol (IGMP) layer 50, a Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)layer 52, a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer 54 and a UserDatagram Protocol (UDP) layer 56. However, more, fewer or otherprotocols could also be used in the transport layer 48.

Optional IGMP layer 50, hereinafter IGMP 50, is responsible formulticasting. For more information on IGMP 50 see RFC-1112, incorporatedherein by reference. ICMP layer 52, hereinafter ICMP 52 is used for IP46 control. The main functions of ICMP 52 include error reporting,reachability testing (e.g., pinging, etc.), route-change notification,performance, subnet addressing and other maintenance. For moreinformation on ICMP 52 see RFC-792, incorporated herein by reference.Both IGMP 50 and ICMP 52 are not required in the protocol stack 38. ICMP52 can be used alone without optional IGMP layer 50.

TCP layer 54, hereinafter TCP 54, provides a connection-oriented,end-to-end reliable protocol designed to fit into a layered hierarchy ofprotocols which support multi-network applications. TCP 54 provides forreliable inter-process communication between pairs of processes innetwork devices attached to distinct but interconnected networks. Formore information on TCP 54 see RFC-793, incorporated herein byreference.

UDP layer 56, hereinafter UDP 56, provides a connectionless mode ofcommunications with datagrams in an interconnected set of computernetworks. UDP 56 provides a transaction oriented datagram protocol,where delivery and duplicate packet protection are not guaranteed. Formore information on UDP 56 see RFC-768, incorporated herein byreference. Both TCP 54 and UDP 56 are not required in protocol stack 38.Either TCP 54 or UDP 56 can be used without the other.

Above transport layer 48 is an application layer 57 where applicationprograms 58 (e.g., 30, 62, 64, etc.) to carry out desired functionalityfor a network device reside. For example, the application programs 54for the client network devices 12, 14, 16 may include a web-browsers orother application programs, cloud application programs 62, whileapplication programs for the server network devices 20, 22, 24, 26 mayinclude other application programs (e.g., 30′, 62, 64, etc.).

However, the protocol stack 38 is not limited to the protocol layersillustrated and more, fewer or other layers and protocols can also beused in protocol stack 38. In addition, other protocols from theInternet Protocol suites (e.g., HTTP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, XML, VoIP, SIPSLP, IM, etc.) and/or other protocols from other protocol suites mayalso be used in protocol stack 38.

HTTP is a standard protocol for communications on the World Wide Web.For more information on HTTP, see IETF RFC-2616, incorporated herein byreference.

SMTP is a protocol for sending e-mail messages between devices includinge-mail servers. For more information on SMTP, see IETF RFC-821 andRFC-2821, incorporated herein by reference.

POP3 is a protocol for a protocol used to retrieve e-mail from a mailserver. For more information on POP3, see IETF RFC-1939, incorporatedherein by reference.

IMAP is a protocol for retrieving e-mail messages from a server. Formore information on IMAP, see IETF RFC-1730, incorporated herein byreference.

EXtensible Markup Language (XML) is XML (Extensible Markup Language) isa markup language for data that allows information and services to beencoded with meaningful structure and semantics that computers andhumans can understand. XML is used for information exchange, andincludes user-specified and industry-specified tags. For moreinformation on XML, see IETF RFC 3023.

VoIP is a set of facilities for managing the delivery of voiceinformation using IP 28 packets. In general, VoIP is used to send voiceinformation in digital form in discrete data packets (i.e., IP 28packets) over data networks 18 rather than using traditionalcircuit-switched protocols used on the PSTN. VoIP is used on bothwireless and wired data networks.

VoIP typically comprises several applications (e.g., SIP, SLP, H.323,H.324, DNS, AAA, etc.) that convert a voice signal into a stream ofpackets (e.g., IP 28 packets) on a packet network and back again. VoIPallows voice signals to travel over a stream of data packets over acloud communications network 18.

As is known in the art, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) supports usermobility by proxying and re-directing requests to a mobile node'scurrent location. Mobile nodes can register their current location. SIPis not tied to any particular conference control protocol. SIP isdesigned to be independent of a lower-layer transport protocol and canbe extended. For more information on SIP, see IETF RFC-2543, thecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

As is known in the art, Service Location Protocol (SLP) provides ascalable framework for the discovery and selection of network services.Using SLP, network devices using the Internet need little or no staticconfiguration of network services for network based applications. Formore information on SLP see IETF RFC-2608, incorporated herein byreference.

As is known in the art, H.323 is one of main family of videoconferencing recommendations for IP networks. The ITU-T H.323 standardsentitled “Packet-based multimedia communications systems” dated February1998, September 1999, November 2000 and July 2003 are incorporatedherein by reference.

As is known in the art, H.324 is a video conferencing recommendationusing Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) lines. The ITU-T H.324standards entitled “Terminal for low bit-rate multimedia communication”dated February 1998 and March 2002 are incorporated herein by reference.

As is known in the art, a Domain Name System (DNS) provides replicateddistributed secure hierarchical databases that hierarchically storeresource records under domain names. For more information on the DNS seeIETF RFC-1034, RFC-1035, RFC-1591, RFC-2606 and RFC-2929, the contentsof all of which are incorporated herein by reference.

As is known in the art, Authentication Authorization and Accounting(AAA) includes a classification scheme and exchange format foraccounting data records (e.g., for call billing, etc.). For moreinformation on AAA applications, see, IETF RFC-2924, the contents ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference.

VoIP services typically need to be able to connect to traditionalcircuit-switched voice networks such as those provided by the PSTN.Thus, VoIP is typically used with the H.323 protocol and othermultimedia protocols. H.323 and H.324 terminals such as multimediacomputers, handheld devices, PDAs or other devices such as non-mobileand mobile phones connect to existing wired and wireless cloudcommunications networks 18 as well as private wired and wirelessnetworks.

H.323 and H.324 terminals implement voice transmission functions andtypically include at least one voice codec (e.g., ITU-T CODECS, G.711,G.723, G.726, G.728, G.729, GSM, etc.) that sends and receivespacketized voice data and typically at least one video codec (e.g.,MPEG, etc.) that sends and receives packetized video data).

An Instant Message (IM) is a “short,” real-time or near-real-timemessage that is sent between two or more end user devices such(computers, personal digital/data assistants (PDAs) mobile phones, etc.)running IM client applications. An IM is typically a short textualmessage. Examples of IM messages include America Online's Instant (AIM)messaging service, Microsoft Network (MSN) Messenger, Yahoo Messenger,and Lycos ICQ Instant Messenger, IM services provided by telecomproviders such as T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and others that provide IMservices via the Internet and other wired and wireless communicationsnetworks. In one embodiment of the present invention, the IM protocolsused meet the requirements of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)Request For Comments (RFC)-2779, entitled “Instant Messaging/PresenceProtocol Requirements.” However, the present invention is not limited tosuch an embodiment and other IM protocols not compliant with IETF RFC2779 may also be used.

In one embodiment, the plural server network devices 20, 22, 24, 26include a connection to plural network interface cards (NICs) in abackplane connected to a communications bus. The NIC cards providegigabit/second (1×10⁹ bits/second) communications speed of electronicinformation. This allows “scaling out” for electronic documentprocessing. The NICs are connected to the plural server network devices20, 22, 24, 26 and the communications network 18. However, the presentinvention is not limited to the NICs described and other types of NICsin other configurations and connections with and/or without a buses canalso be used to practice the invention.

In one embodiment, network devices 12, 14, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26 and wiredand wireless interfaces including the NICs include “4G” components. Asis known in the art “4G” refers to the fourth generation of wirelesscommunications standards and speeds of 100 megabits/second togigabits/second or more. It is a successor to 3G and 2G standards. Thenomenclature of the generations generally refers to a change in thefundamental nature of the service. The first was the move from analogue(1G) to digital (2G) transmission. This was followed by multi-mediasupport, spread spectrum transmission and at least 200 kbits/second(3G). The 4G NICs include IP packet-switched NICs, wired and wirelessultra-broadband (i.e., gigabit speed) access NICs, WorldwideInteroperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) NICs and multi-carriertransmission NICs. However, the present invention is not limited to thisembodiment and 1G, 2G and 3G and/or any combination thereof, with orwith 4G NICs can be used to practice the invention.

Security and Encryption

Network devices and/or wired and wireless interfaces of the presentinvention include security and encryption for secure communications onthe cloud communications network 18 and/or cloud communications network18′. Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP) (also called “Wired EquivalentPrivacy) is a security protocol for WiLANs defined in the IEEE 802.11bstandard. WEP is cryptographic privacy algorithm, based on the RivestCipher 4 (RC4) encryption engine, used to provide confidentiality for802.11b wireless data.

As is known in the art, RC4 is cipher designed by RSA Data Security,Inc. of Bedford, Mass., which can accept encryption keys of arbitrarylength, and is essentially a pseudo random number generator with anoutput of the generator being XORed with a data stream to produceencrypted data.

One problem with WEP is that it is used at the two lowest layers of theOSI model, the physical layer and the data link layer, therefore, itdoes not offer end-to-end security. One another problem with WEP is thatits encryption keys are static rather than dynamic. To update WEPencryption keys, an individual has to manually update a WEP key. WEPalso typically uses 40-bit static keys for encryption and thus provides“weak encryption,” making a WEP device a target of hackers.

The IEEE 802.11 Working Group is working on a security upgrade for the802.11 standard called “802.11i.” This supplemental draft standard isintended to improve WiLAN security. It describes the encryptedtransmission of data between systems 802.11X WiLANs. It also defines newencryption key protocols including the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol(TKIP). The IEEE 802.11i draft standard, version 4, completed Jun. 6,2003, is incorporated herein by reference.

The 802.11i is based on 802.1x port-based authentication for user anddevice authentication. The 802.11i standard includes two maindevelopments: Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and Robust Security Network(RSN).

WPA uses the same RC4 underlying encryption algorithm as WEP. However,WPA uses TKIP to improve security of keys used with WEP. WPA keys arederived and rotated more often than WEP keys and thus provide additionalsecurity. WPA also adds a message-integrity-check function to preventpacket forgeries.

RSN uses dynamic negotiation of authentication and selectable encryptionalgorithms between wireless access points and wireless devices. Theauthentication schemes proposed in the draft standard include ExtensibleAuthentication Protocol (EAP). One proposed encryption algorithm is anAdvanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption algorithm.

Dynamic negotiation of authentication and encryption algorithms lets RSNevolve with the state of the art in security, adding algorithms toaddress new threats and continuing to provide the security necessary toprotect information that WiLANs carry.

The NIST developed a new encryption standard, the Advanced EncryptionStandard (AES) to keep government information secure. AES is intended tobe a stronger, more efficient successor to Triple Data EncryptionStandard (3DES). More information on NIST AES can be found at the domainname “www.nist.gov/aes.”

As is known in the art, DES is a popular symmetric-key encryption methoddeveloped in 1975 and standardized by ANSI in 1981 as ANSI X.3.92, thecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference. As is known inthe art, 3DES is the encrypt-decrypt-encrypt (EDE) mode of the DEScipher algorithm 3DES is defined in the ANSI standard, ANSI X9.52-1998,the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. DES modes ofoperation are used in conjunction with the NIST Federal InformationProcessing Standard (FIPS) for data encryption (FIPS 46-3, October1999), the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The NIST approved a FIPS for the AES, FIPS-197. This standard specified“Rijndael” encryption as a FIPS-approved symmetric encryption algorithmthat may be used by U.S. Government organizations (and others) toprotect sensitive information. The NIST FIPS-197 standard (AES FIPS PUB197, November 2001) is incorporated herein by reference.

The NIST approved a FIPS for U.S. Federal Government requirements forinformation technology products for sensitive but unclassified (SBU)communications. The NIST FIPS Security Requirements for CryptographicModules (FIPS PUB 140-2, May 2001) is incorporated herein by reference.

As is known in the art, RSA is a public key encryption system which canbe used both for encrypting messages and making digital signatures. Theletters RSA stand for the names of the inventors: Rivest, Shamir andAdleman. For more information on RSA, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,829, nowexpired, incorporated herein by reference.

As is known in the art, “hashing” is the transformation of a string ofcharacters into a usually shorter fixed-length value or key thatrepresents the original string. Hashing is used to index and retrieveitems in a database because it is faster to find the item using theshorter hashed key than to find it using the original value. It is alsoused in many encryption algorithms.

Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA), is used for computing a secure condensedrepresentation of a data message or a data file. When a message of anylength <2⁶⁴ bits is input, the SHA-1 produces a 160-bit output called a“message digest.” The message digest can then be input to other securitytechniques such as encryption, a Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) andothers which generates or verifies a security mechanism for the message.SHA-512 outputs a 512-bit message digest. The Secure Hash Standard, FIPSPUB 180-1, Apr. 17, 1995, is incorporated herein by reference.

Message Digest-5 (MD-5) takes as input a message of arbitrary length andproduces as output a 128-bit “message digest” of the input. The MD5algorithm is intended for digital signature applications, where a largefile must be “compressed” in a secure manner before being encrypted witha private (secret) key under a public-key cryptosystem such as RSA. TheIETF RFC-1321, entitled “The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm” isincorporated here by reference.

As is known in the art, providing a way to check the integrity ofinformation transmitted over or stored in an unreliable medium such as awireless network is a prime necessity in the world of open computing andcommunications. Mechanisms that provide such integrity check based on asecret key are called “message authentication codes” (MAC). Typically,message authentication codes are used between two parties that share asecret key in order to validate information transmitted between theseparties.

Keyed Hashing for Message Authentication Codes (HMAC), is a mechanismfor message authentication using cryptographic hash functions. HMAC isused with any iterative cryptographic hash function, e.g., MD5, SHA-1,SHA-512, etc. in combination with a secret shared key. The cryptographicstrength of HMAC depends on the properties of the underlying hashfunction. The IETF RFC-2101, entitled “HMAC: Keyed-Hashing for MessageAuthentication” is incorporated here by reference.

As is known in the art, an Electronic Code Book (ECB) is a mode ofoperation for a “block cipher,” with the characteristic that eachpossible block of plaintext has a defined corresponding cipher textvalue and vice versa. In other words, the same plaintext value willalways result in the same cipher text value. Electronic Code Book isused when a volume of plaintext is separated into several blocks ofdata, each of which is then encrypted independently of other blocks. TheElectronic Code Book has the ability to support a separate encryptionkey for each block type.

As is known in the art, Diffie and Hellman (DH) describe severaldifferent group methods for two parties to agree upon a shared secret insuch a way that the secret will be unavailable to eavesdroppers. Thissecret is then converted into various types of cryptographic keys. Alarge number of the variants of the DH method exist including ANSIX9.42. The IETF RFC-2631, entitled “Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement Method”is incorporated here by reference.

However, the present invention is not limited to the security orencryption techniques described and other security or encryptiontechniques can also be used.

As is known in the art, the HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) Secure(HTTPs), is a standard for encrypted communications on the World WideWeb. HTTPs is actually just HTTP over a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Formore information on HTTP, see IETF RFC-2616 incorporated herein byreference.

As is known in the art, the SSL protocol is a protocol layer which maybe placed between a reliable connection-oriented network layer protocol(e.g. TCP/IP) and the application protocol layer (e.g. HTTP). SSLprovides for secure communication between a source and destination byallowing mutual authentication, the use of digital signatures forintegrity, and encryption for privacy.

The SSL protocol is designed to support a range of choices for specificsecurity methods used for cryptography, message digests, and digitalsignatures. The security method are negotiated between the source anddestination at the start of establishing a protocol session. The SSL 2.0protocol specification, by Kipp E. B. Hickman, 1995 is incorporatedherein by reference.

As is known in the art, Transport Layer Security (TLS) providescommunications privacy over the Internet. The protocol allowsclient/server applications to communicate over a transport layer (e.g.,TCP) in a way that is designed to prevent eavesdropping, tampering, ormessage forgery. For more information on TLS see IETF RFC-2246,incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, the security functionality includes Cisco CompatibleEXtensions (CCX). CCX includes security specifications for makers of802.11xx wireless LAN chips for ensuring compliance with Cisco'sproprietary wireless security LAN protocols. As is known in the art,Cisco Systems, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. is supplier of networkinghardware and software, including router and security products.

However, the present invention is not limited to such security andencryption methods and more, fewer and/or other types of security andencryption methods can be used to practice the invention.

Internet Television Services

In one embodiment, the applications 30, 62, 64 provide informationservices over the communications network 18 via television services. Thetelevision services include Internet television, Web-TV, and/or InternetProtocol Television (IPtv) and/or other broadcast television services.

“Internet television” allows users to choose a program or the televisionshow they want to watch from an archive of programs or from a channeldirectory. The two forms of viewing Internet television are streamingcontent directly to a media player or simply downloading a program to aviewer's set-top box, game console, computer, or other mesh networkdevice.

“Web-TV” delivers digital content via non-mesh broadband and mobilenetworks. The digital content is streamed to a viewer's set-top box,game console, computer, or other mesh network device.

“Internet Protocol television (IPtv)” is a system through which Internettelevision services are delivered using the architecture and networkingmethods of the Internet Protocol Suite over a packet-switched networkinfrastructure, e.g., the Internet and broadband Internet accessnetworks, instead of being delivered through traditional radio frequencybroadcast, satellite signal, and cable television (CATV) formats.

However, the present invention is not limited to such InternetTelevision services and more, fewer and/or other Internet Televisionservices can be used to practice the invention.

General Search Engine Services

In one embodiment, the applications 30, 62, 64 provide informationservices via general search engine services. A search engine is designedto search for information on a communications network 18 such as theInternet including World Wide Web servers, FTP servers etc. The searchresults are generally presented in a list of electronic results. Theinformation may consist of web pages, images, electronic information,multimedia information, and other types of files. Some search enginesalso mine data available in databases or open directories. Unlike webdirectories, which are maintained by human editors, search enginestypically operate algorithmically and/or are a mixture of algorithmicand human input.

In one embodiment, the applications 30, 62, 64 provide general searchengine services as stand alone services. In another embodiment, theapplications 30, 62, 64 provide general search engine services byinteracting with one or more other public search engines (e.g., GOOGLE,BING, YAHOO, etc.) and/or private search engine services.

However, the present invention is not limited to such general searchengine services and more, fewer and/or other general search engineservices can be used to practice the invention.

Social Networking Services

In one embodiment, the applications 30, 62, 64 provide informationservices via one more social networking services to/from one or moresocial networking web-sites 13 (e.g., FACEBOOK, U-TUBE, TWITTER,MY-SPACE, MATCH.COM, E-HARMONY, etc.). The social networking web-sitesinclude, but are not limited to, dating web-sites, blogs, RSS feeds, andother types of information web-sites in which messages can be left orposted for a variety of social activities.

However, the present invention is not limited to the social networkingservices described and other public and private social networkingservices can also be used to practice the invention.

Cloud Computing Networks

In one embodiment, the communications network 18 includes a cloudcommunications network 18′ comprising plural different networks 72, 74,76, 78. “Cloud computing” is a model for enabling, on-demand networkaccess to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g.,public and private networks, servers, storage, applications, andservices) that are shared, rapidly provisioned and released with minimalmanagement effort or service provider interaction.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram 60 illustrating an exemplary cloudcommunications network 18′. However, the present invention is notlimited to this cloud computing model and other cloud computing modelscan also be used to practice the invention. The exemplary cloudcommunications network includes both wired and/or wireless components ofpublic and private networks.

This exemplary cloud computing model for electronic information displaypromotes availability for shared resources and comprises: (1) cloudcomputing essential characteristics; (2) cloud computing service models;and (3) cloud computing deployment models. However, the presentinvention is not limited to this cloud computing model and other cloudcomputing models can also be used to practice the invention.

Exemplary cloud computing essential characteristics appear in Table 1.However, the present invention is not limited to these essentialcharacteristics and more, fewer or other characteristics can also beused to practice the invention.

TABLE 1 On-demand electronic document services. A document servicer canunilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time andnetwork storage, as needed automatically without requiring humaninteraction with each network server on the cloud communications network18′. Broadband network access. Electronic information displaycapabilities are available over plural broadband communications networksand accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use byheterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, smartphones 14, tablet computers 12, laptops 12′, PDAs, etc.). The broadbandnetwork access includes high speed network access such as 3G and/or 4Gwireless and/or wired and broadband and/or ultra-broad band (e.g.,WiMAX, etc.) network access. Resource pooling. Electronic informationdisplay computing resources are pooled to serve multiple electronicdocument processors using a multi- tenant model, with different physicaland virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according toelectronic document processing demand There is a sense of locationindependence in that the electronic document processor generally has nocontrol or knowledge over the exact location of the provided electronicdocument resources but may be able to specify location at a higher levelof abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter). Examples of pooledresources include storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth,virtual server network device and virtual target network devices. Rapidelasticity. Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned, insome cases automatically, to quickly scale out and rapidly released toquickly scale in for electronic information display searching To theelectronic document processor, the electronic document capabilitiesavailable for provisioning appear to be unlimited and can be used in anyquantity at any time Measured Services. Cloud computing systemsautomatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a meteringcapability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type ofelectronic information display service (e.g., storage, processing,bandwidth, custom electronic information displays, etc.). Electronicinformation display usage is monitored, controlled, and reportedproviding transparency for both the electronic information displayprovider and the electronic document processor of the utilizedelectronic information display service.

Exemplary cloud computing service models illustrated in FIG. 4 appear inTable 2. However, the present invention is not limited to these servicemodels and more, fewer or other service models can also be used topractice the invention.

TABLE 2 Cloud Computing Software Applications 62 for an Electronicinformation display Service (CCSA 64). The capability to use theprovider's applications 30, 62, 64 running on a cloud infrastructure 66.The cloud computing applications 62, are accessible from the servernetwork device 26 from various client devices 12, 14, 16 through a thinclient interface such as a web browser, etc. The user does not manage orcontrol the underlying cloud infrastructure 66 including network,servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application 30,62, 64 capabilities, with the possible exception of limiteduser-specific application configuration settings. Cloud ComputingInfrastructure 66 for the Electronic information display Service (CCI68). The capability provided to the user is to provision processing,storage, networks 18, 72, 74, 76, 78 and other fundamental computingresources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrarysoftware, which can include operating systems and applications 30, 62,64. The user does not manage or control the underlying cloudinfrastructure 66 but has control over operating systems, storage,deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networkingcomponents (e.g., host firewalls, etc.). Cloud Computing Platform 70 forthe Electronic information display Service (CCP 72). The capabilityprovided to the user to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure 66 createdor acquired applications created using programming languages and toolssupported servers 20, 22, 24, 26, etc.. The user not manage or controlthe underlying cloud infrastructure 66 including network, servers,operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployedapplications 30, 62, 64 and possibly application hosting environmentconfigurations.

Exemplary cloud computing deployment models appear in Table 3. However,the present invention is not limited to these deployment models andmore, fewer or other deployment models can also be used to practice theinvention.

TABLE 3 Private cloud network 72. The cloud network infrastructure isoperated solely for an electronic information display organization. Itmay be managed by the electronic information display organization or athird party and may exist on premise or off premise. Community cloudnetwork 74. The cloud network infrastructure is shared by severaldifferent organizations and supports a specific electronic documentcommunity that has shared concerns (e.g., mission, securityrequirements, policy, compliance considerations, etc.). It may bemanaged by the different organizations or a third party and may exist onpremise or off premise. Public cloud network 76. The cloud networkinfrastructure such as the Internet, PSTN, CATV, etc. is made availableto the general public or a large industry group and is owned by one ormore organizations selling cloud services. Hybrid cloud network 78. Thecloud network infrastructure 66 is a composition of two and/or morecloud networks 18′ (e.g., private 72, community 74, and/or public 76,etc.) and/or other types of public and/or private networks (e.g.,intranets, etc.) that remain unique entities but are bound together bystandardized or proprietary technology that enables data and applicationportability (e.g., cloud bursting for load-balancing between clouds,etc.)

Cloud software 64 for electronic information displays takes fulladvantage of the cloud paradigm by being service oriented with a focuson statelessness, low coupling, modularity, and semanticinteroperability for electronic document processing.

Electronic information on the communications network 18 and the cloudcommunications network 18′ are stored in data storage objects includingcloud storage objects. Cloud storage objects present a single unifiednamespace or object-space and manages desired electronic content by useror administrator-defined policies storage and retrieval policies. Cloudstorage objects and data storage objects include REpresentational StateTransfer (REST), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), LightweightDirectory Access Protocol (LDAP) and/or Application ProgrammingInterface (API) objects and/or other types of cloud storage objects.However, the present invention is not limited to the cloud storageobjects and/or data storage objects described, and more fewer and othertypes of cloud storage objects can be used to practice the invention.

REST is a protocol specification that characterizes and constrainsmacro-interactions storage objects of the four components of a cloudcommunications network 18, namely origin servers, gateways, proxies andclients, without imposing limitations on the individual participants.

SOAP is a protocol specification for exchanging structured informationin the implementation of cloud services with storage objects. SOAP hasat least three major characteristics: (1) Extensibility (includingsecurity/encryption, routing, etc.); (2) Neutrality (SOAP can be usedover any transport protocol such as HTTP, SMTP or even TCP, etc.), and(3) Independence (SOAP allows for almost any programming model to beused, etc.)

LDAP is a software protocol for enabling storage and retrieval ofelectronic content and other resources such as files and devices on thecloud communications network 18. LDAP is a “lightweight” version ofDirectory Access Protocol (DAP), which is part of X.500, a standard fordirectory services in a network. LDAP may be used with X.509 securityand other security methods for secure storage and retrieval. X.509 ispublic key digital certificate standard developed as part of the X.500directory specification. X.509 is used for secure management anddistribution of digitally signed certificates across networks.

An API is a particular set of rules and specifications that softwareprograms can follow to communicate with each other. It serves as aninterface between different software programs and facilitates theirinteraction.

Automated Work Project Management

FIGS. 5A-5D are a flow diagram for a Method 80 for automated workproject management.

In FIG. 5A at Step 82, a new electronic work order is received on anapplication on a server network device with one or more processors via acommunications network from a requesting network device with one or moreprocessors. The electronic work order includes a new project to becompleted at a street address. At Step 84, the application on the servernetwork device stores the new electronic work order in a databaseassociated with the server network device. At Step 86, the applicationon the server network device automatically determines a physicalgeographic location of the new project with the street address from thenew electronic work order. At Step 88, the application on the servernetwork device automatically identifies the determined physicalgeographic location of the new project with a new unique graphicalidentifier. At Step 90, the application on the server network deviceautomatically adds the new unique graphical identifier to an electronicmap including plural current geographic physical locations of pluralmobile target network devices for plural workers who are able tocomplete the new project. The electronic map includes a plural differentterritories. In FIG. 5B at Step 92, the application on the servernetwork device automatically determines which territory includes the newunique identifier for the new project. At Step 94, the application onthe server network device automatically determines via thecommunications network which mobile target network device for a workerin the determined territory is closest to the determined physicallocation of the new project and is available to complete the newproject. At Step 96, an electronic work product message is sent from theapplication on the server network device via the communications networkto a second application on a mobile target network device with one ormore processors for the worker that the worker has been selected tocomplete the new project in the determined territory. At Step 98, theapplication on the server network device automatically tracks via thecommunications network an amount of time required by the mobile targetnetwork device to reach the determined physical geographic location ofthe new project. In FIG. 5C, at Step 100, the application on the servernetwork device automatically tracks via the communications network anamount of time the mobile target network device is located at thedetermined physical geographic location of the new project. At Step 102,one or more start and stop messages are received on the application onthe server network device via the communications network from the mobiletarget network device when the worker has started the new project. Afirst starting message may include a first digital photograph of the newproject before the new project was started. At Step 104, a projectcompletion message is received on the application on the server networkdevice via the communications network from the mobile target networkdevice when the worker has completed the new project. The projectcompletion message includes a second digital photograph of the newproject after the new project was completed. At Step 106, theapplication on the server network device automatically verifies the newproject has been completed with the tracked amount of time the mobiletarget network device was located at the determined physical geographiclocation of the new project and/or by comparing the first digitalphotograph to the second digital photograph. In FIG. 5D at Step 108, anelectronic invoice is automatically generated from the application onthe server network device for completion of the new project. At Step110, the generated electronic invoice is automatically sent from theapplication on the server network device via the communications networkback to the requesting network device for payment. It is also possiblefor a business to establish a new location that will have recurring workorders created at the location and will follow the same format on eachrecurrence of the same work order.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram 112 of a graphical user interface 32displaying and electronic 114 illustrating additional details of Method80 of FIG. 5.

Method 80 is illustrated with one exemplary embodiment. However, thepresent invention is not limited to this embodiment and otherembodiments can also be used to practice the invention.

In such an exemplary embodiment at FIG. 5A at Step 82, a new electronicwork order 11 (FIG. 1) is received on an application 30′, 62′, 64′ on aserver network device (e.g., 20, etc.) with one or more processors via acommunications network 18 from a requesting network device (e.g., 12,14, 16, 22, 24, etc.) with one or more processors. The electronic workorder 11 includes a new project to be completed at a street address on astreet 119 (streets are illustrated with dotted lines in FIG. 6 forsimplicity).

The new electronic work orders 11, include, but are not limited to, newwork orders for installing a telephone line, CATV cable, to mark an areafor safe digging, a new construction project, a maintenance project, ajanitorial and/or cleaning project, a lawn care project, etc. However,the present invention is not limited to the new electronic work ordersdescribed and more, fewer or other types of electronic work orders canbe used to practice the invention.

In one embodiment, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ includes a cloudapplication received from a cloud network 18′. In such an embodiment,the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device 20 and thesecond application 30, 62, 64 on the mobile target network devices 12,14, 16 provide a cloud computing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) 68,a cloud computing Platform, as a Service (PaaS) 72 and offers Specificcloud electronic document services as a Service (SaaS) 64 including acloud software service, wherein the IaaS, PaaS and SaaS include one ormore of automatic electronic document services comprising networking,storage, server network device, virtualization, operating system,middleware, run-time, data or application services, or pluralcombinations thereof, on the cloud communications network.

However, the present invention can be practice with or without a cloudapplication and/or a cloud communications network and the presentinvention is not limited to cloud communications networks.

At step 84, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device20 stores the new electronic work order 11 in a database 20′ associatedwith the server network device 20. In one embodiment, all storage indatabase 20′ is completed with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol(LDAP). However, the present invention is not limited to LDAP and otherprotocols can be used to store and access data in database 20′ (e.g.,structured query language (SQL) and others, etc.)

In one embodiment, the database 20′ schema of the system 10 containsmultiple tables: Project or Tickets, Territory Assignment, PersonnelSetup, Details, Incident Reporting, Quality Assurance, Time Keeper, Timeoff Requests, Error Logs, Field Surveys, Billing records, Billing Units,Documents, Allowable Billing Items, Mateial Items, Materials Received,Materials Needed, Materials Used. Each table has several field andrelationships included to link all of the records in each tabletogether. The Territory assignment table helps the management set upterritories 120-126 for workers 119 by municipality or by polygon imagesplotted onto a map. Territories can be configured to identify themanagement user responsible for the territory and workers 118responsible for completing the work assignment in that territory. When anew work order 11 is received into application 30′, 62′, 64′ itautomatically assigns the new work order 11 based on the territoryassigned to the appropriate worker and also has capability toautomatically assign based on a physical geographic location to anappropriate worker 118. However, the present invention is not limited tothis embodiment, and more, fewer and other database 20′ table can beused to practice the invention.

At Step 86, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device20 automatically determines a physical geographic location 116 (FIG. 6)of the new project with the street address for a street 119 (FIG. 6)from the new electronic work order 11.

In one embodiment, the determined physical geographic location 116includes Global Positioning Satellite (GPS), data, Geo-coding data,electronic map data, three-dimensional (3D) (X, Y, Z) geo-coordinates,mobile phone cell tower location information and/or other physicalgeographic location information.

The “Global Positioning System (GPS)” is a space-based global navigationsatellite system (GNSS) that provides reliable location and timeinformation in all weather and at all times and anywhere on or near theEarth. A GPS receiver calculates its position by precisely timingsignals sent by GPS satellites. A GPS receiver uses the messages itreceives to determine a transit time of each message and computes adistance to each GPS satellite. These distances along with thesatellites' locations are used with the possible aid of triangulation,depending on which algorithm is used, to compute a current physicalposition of the GPS receiver. This position is then displayed, perhapswith a moving map display (e.g., at a street level, etc. and/or latitudeand longitude and/or elevation information may also be included. ManyGPS units also show derived information such as travel direction andspeed, calculated from position changes. The GPS coordinates includestandard GPS, GPS map, Digital GPS (DGPS) and/or other types of GPSinformation.

“Geo-coding” is the process of finding associated geographic coordinates(often expressed as latitude and longitude) from other geographic data,such as street addresses, or ZIP codes (postal codes). With geographiccoordinates the features can be mapped and entered into GeographicInformation Systems, or the coordinates can be embedded into media suchas digital photographs via geo-tagging. Reverse geo-coding is theopposite: finding an associated textual location such as a streetaddress, from geographic coordinates. There are many web-sites on theInternet that provide geo-coded data (e.g. geocoder.us, etc.)

“Electronic map data” includes electronic map data from such sites asGOOGLE, YAHOO, MAPQUEST and other electronic map sites. The electronicmap data includes real-time information. Real-time information includesinformation updated at a same rate as data is received enabling the datato be used direct or control a process.

A mobile network device such as a smart phone, tablet computer, etc.sends out a signal that may be picked up by three or more cell towers,enabling the “triangulation” location information to be used to locatethe device. A distance to an item from each of three distinct pointsprovides an approximate location of that item in relation to the threereference points. This geometric calculation applies in the case ofmobile network devices such as cell phones, since the locations of thecell towers which receive the phone's signal are fixed and well knownand an estimate a distance of the mobile phone from each of thoseantennae towers can be determined based upon the lag time between whenthe tower sends a ping to the phone and receives the answering pingback.

“Three-dimensional (3D) (X, Y, Z) geo-coordinate” data includeselectronic map data in three-dimensional space (e.g., building, office,desk, etc.) including a determined physical geographic location.

However, the present invention is not limited to determined physicalgeographic location described and more, fewer and other techniquesand/or data may be used to provide the determined physical geographiclocation.

At Step 88, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device20 automatically identifies the determined physical geographic location116 of the new project with a new unique graphical identifier 117 (FIG.6).

In one embodiment, the unique graphical identifier 117 is a uniquegraphical icon such as a car, truck, person, shape 117 (e.g. circle,triangle, square, etc.) number, etc. The unique graphical icons includeplural different colors for easy viewing, determining which worker isassigned to the project, and also indicate status of the new project.For example, a red color indicates a new project has been received in aterritory, a yellow color indicates work has been started on the newproject and a green color indicates work has been completed on the newproject. However, the present invention is not limited to the graphicalicons or colors described and more, fewer and other graphical iconsand/or text and/or multimedia identifiers and/or colors may be used topractice the invention.

At Step 90, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device20 automatically adds the new unique graphical identifier 117 to a GUI32 of electronic map 114 including plural current geographic physicallocations of plural mobile target network devices 12, 14, 16 for pluralworkers 118, 118′, 118″ who are able to complete the new project. Theelectronic map 114 includes a plural different territories 120, 122,124, 126 (labeled T-1 through T-4 in FIG. 6).

The electronic map 114 has zoom-in and zoom-out capabilities. Theelectronic map can be view in two-dimensions and/or in three-dimensions.The electronic map 114 uses plural colors and display a large number ofdifferent objects

When the 3D graphical objects are displayed on the GUI 34, they providea more distinct graphical object that is more easily viewable and onethat “pops” off the GUI 32 when viewed by a trader. The 3D objects allowa viewer to more easily follow the object visually as the in window. Inone embodiment, 3D glasses are not required or used to view the 3Dgraphical objects. In such an embodiment, the 3D graphical objects aredisplayed in a specialized 3D format using a first type of 3D API.

In another embodiment, 3D glasses are used to view the 3D graphicalobjects. In such an embodiment, the 3D graphical objects are displayedin a specialized 3D format using another type of 3D API. However, 3Dglasses are not required to view the 3D graphical objects and theinvention can be practiced without 3D glasses, the specialized 3D formator the 3D API.

For example in one embodiment with 3D glasses required, 3D stereoscopyis used. 3D stereoscopy (also called stereoscopic or 3-D imaging) is atechnique capable of recording three-dimensional visual informationand/or creating the illusion of depth in an image for 3D display.However, the present invention is not limited to such embodiments an 3Dobjects can be used without specialized 3D glasses, etc.

In FIG. 5B at Step 92, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the servernetwork device 20 automatically determines which territory (e.g., T-1,120, etc.) includes the new unique identifier 117 for the new project.

At Step 94, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device20 automatically determines via the communications network 18 whichmobile target network device 12, 14, 16 for a worker 118, 118′ in thedetermined territory 120 is closest to the determined physical location116 of the new project and is available to complete the new project.

At Step 96, an electronic work project message is sent from theapplication 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device 20 via thecommunications network 18 to a second application 30, 62, 64 on a mobiletarget network device (e.g., 12, etc.) with one or more processors forthe worker 118, indicating the worker 118 has been selected to completethe new project in the determined territory 120.

In one embodiment, the electronic work project messages is a textmessage, instant message, e-mail, live voice message, VoIP message,recorded audio message, recorded video message, etc. However, thepresent invention is not limited to this embodiment and more fewer ofother types of electronic messages can be used to practice theinvention.

In one embodiment, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ performs a query of howfar a worker 118 is from a physical geographic location of a new projectusing a GPS location of the new project and GPS location of the user anddetermining if the new project should be sent to that worker 118 or sentto another worker 118′. Once sent to the worker 118 the application 30′,62′, 64′ on the server network device will send a text message and/orother type of message to indicate that the new project was issued to aspecific worker 118. If the worker 118 does acknowledge the message, theapplication 30′, 62, 64′ will initiate a phone call to the worker 118requiring response using an interactive Voice Response (IVR) system toinform the worker 118 of the new project. The IVR may also be used tocontact and interact with a customer and/or client requesting the newproject. In the event that the worker 118 does not answer the phonecall, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ will call other workers or managers118′ until it receives a response. The application 30′, 62′, 64′ alsologs which workers responded to the call and/or text messages and suchresponses and/or non-responses are used to make future assignments ofnew projects.

At Step 98, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device20 automatically tracks via the communications network an amount of timerequired by the mobile target network device 12 to reach 128 thedetermined physical geographic location of the new project. Collectionof such data is one type of analytic automatically collected by thesystem 10.

In one embodiment, the application 30′ 62′, 64′ allows optimizes the newproject assigned to the worker 118 by identifying a worker's 118 currentphysical geographic location and automatically calculating a shortesttime for the worker 118 to drive to all of the new projects assigned tothe worker 118. This is displayed on the electronic map 114 visually andthen also displayed in a worker's 118 list of projects so it can bepresented to the worker 118 and sorted in a priority order the workershould complete their projects. The system 10 also includes thecapability to effectively route from a start depot each day and willsequence the geographical locations of all of the projects to start andstop at the same location each day.

“Analytics” is the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns indata. Especially valuable in areas rich with recorded information,analytics relies on the simultaneous application of statistics, computerprogramming and operations research to quantify performance Analyticsoften favors data visualization to communicate insight.

One purpose of collection travel analytics is to improve response timeto a request to complete a work order. For example, if a worker 118 wasassigned a new work order 11 and traveled on a highway that was prone totraffic backups, a preferred travel route may be included in the workorder. Instead of traveling on the highway, the work order may suggestthe worker 118 take a less busy county road to avoid traffic congestionon the highway and improve response time.

The travel time analytics are stored in database 20′. In addition,real-time analytics are also used to practice the invention. Forexample, before assigning a new work order to a worker 11, the system 10would automatically consider real-time traffic information to suggest apreferred travel route. If the preferred travel route was county highwayA, but there is currently and accident on county highway A, the workermay be automatically directed in real-time to county highway C to avoidthe accident.

Management workers control what project records are visible to theworker 119 responsible for a territory 120-126 to manage due dates andprevent the worker 119 from having work assignments past the due datefield.

In one embodiment, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server networkdevice 20 includes a process that will display new project records fromthe database 20′ in a calendar format which is has filters on it toallow a user to see records in a certain region or territory, a specificwork or group of works records, and/or all records that meet a certainstatus criteria. The project record includes a scheduled date and stopdates to show if a project must have starts and stops. The calendardisplays the records or projects based on these dates in a monthlycalendar format. The records are then allowed to be dragged to otherdates which will automatically update the record. For instance if arecord has a scheduled date of January 15^(th) it will display on thecalendar under this date the user can drag the record to January 20^(th)and the record will automatically change. There is also a batch updatefunction that allows users to change the status or assignment ofmultiple database 20′ records at one time.

In FIG. 5C at Step 100, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the servernetwork device 20 automatically tracks via the communications network 18an amount of time 136 the mobile target network device 12 and the worker118 is located at the determined physical geographic location 116 of thenew project. The work times are stored in database 20′ and are used tocalculate the final invoice. The application 30′, 62′, 64′ also providesfor the user to set a status to a work order and indicate otherinformation relating to the work performed and the application willcalculate which billing item shall be used in accordance with theproject. For use in larger projects the customer may opt to requiretheir subcontractors to utilize said application. In these instances thecustomer or client shall also be able to control which billing items arepermitted to be billed against a particular project.

At Step 102, one or more start and stop messages are received on theapplication 30′ 62′ 64′ on the server network device 20 via thecommunications network 18 from the mobile target network device 12 whenthe worker 118 has started the new project. A first starting message mayinclude a first digital photograph 130 of the new project before the newproject was started. In one embodiment, the mobile target network device12 includes a camera component. In another embodiment, a separate camerais used to collect the digital photograph and/or video.

In one embodiment, the first digital photograph 130 may be replaced by areal-time video and/or recorded video sent from the target mobilenetwork device 12 back to the server network device 20.

Such digital photographs 130, 132 and/or video is stored in database 20′as another type of analytic. For example, if the new work order 11 was awork order to determine where underground objects such as power lines,gas pipes, water pipes, etc. are located before a person was going todig at the location, such underground objects are recorded on thedigital photographs and/or in the video. If a new work order 11 wasreceived for the same street address and no new cables, wires,pipelines, etc. were added recently, a corresponding digital photographor video could be returned to a worker on-site to complete the new workorder in a quick and efficient manner. In the current embodiment,different types of objects are displayed with different colors on GUI 34to allow quick and easy identification of such objects.

As another example, if the new work order 11 was for a new telephoneline and/or a new CATV cable and such lines and/or cables were alreadyinstalled, the digital photographs and/or video in the database 20′ areused to quickly and efficiently confirm the new line or cable is alreadyinstalled and the new work order 11 is automatically adjusted to sendout a different type of worker. That is, instead of sending out a wiringcrew with large spools of wires or cables to install a new line orcable, a worker who can hook up the desired service is sent out instead.Thus, the database 20′ is used to quickly and efficiently confirm newwork orders 11 in multi-story and multi-family apartment buildings,condo developments, etc. saving significant time and money.

As another example, if the new work order was within a sensitive workarea or the customer presented unique challenges to the business thiscan be updated graphically on the map and any future work orders withina user specified distance would automatically identified by theapplication 30′, 62′, 64′ that the new order has specialcharacteristics.

In one embodiment, when a worker arrives at a job site, the worker willnote appropriate physical objects in the digital photographs 130, 132and/or video. For example, if the system 10 is used to install newtelephone lines or CATV cables, the worker will the location of anymanholes, poles, utility closets, building entrances, cross boxes,junction boxes, etc. Such analytic data is stored in database 20′. Thisdata allows any new additional work orders to be handled more quicklyand more efficiently as a worker sent out to complete the new additionalwork order would not have to take time to locate a manhole, utilitycloset, etc. as that data was previously recorded and is sent to theworker in real-time with the new additional work order 11.

Similar data is also collected for janitorial projects (e.g., locationof dumpsters, recycle, service doors, service elevators, etc.) lawnmaintenance projects (e.g., which properties have dogs, which gate touse for a fenced yard, etc.), etc.

In such embodiment, the object data analytics are automatically added tothe electronic map 114 as they are collected. All or a portion of theelectronic map 114 with the object data analytics added is viewable bythe worker 118. In another embodiment, a link to all or a portion of theelectronic map 114 is sent to the worker 118 in the first startingmessage.

In one embodiment, the first starting message also includes a biometricfor the worker 118 starting the new project. In another embodiment thestarting message includes a unique identifier for the worker 118. Thebiometric or unique identifier for the worker 118 helps ensure theworker 118 is the actual worker completing the project.

A “biometric” is method for uniquely recognizing humans or non-humanentities based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioral traits.Biometric identification systems include iris scans, retinal scans,fingerprints, handwriting recognition, face recognition, voicerecognition, DNA, etc. Moreover, non-biological objects may also beidentified using the biometric technology and we use the term“biometric” in this aspect even though these may not be biological.

In one embodiment, the mobile target network device 12 includes abiometric scanner. In such an embodiment, the worker scans his/herbiometric at a start and end of work on the new project. Biometricscanners are easily attached/removed from smart phones, tabletcomputers, etc. In another embodiment, the mobile target network device12 includes a previously scanned and stored biometric uniquelyidentifying the worker.

The unique identifiers, include, but are not limited to, employeeidentifiers for the workers 118, MAC addresses of the mobile targetnetwork devices 12, 14, 16, an text message identifier, an e-mailaddress, a social networking identifier, a unique Radio FrequencyIdentifier (RFID), etc.

However, the present invention is not limited to this identifiers andmore, fewer and other types of unique identifiers can be used topractice the invention.

If the new work order cannot be completed in one day, a stop message issent from the mobile target network device 12 back to the server networkdevice 20 to indicate the worker 118 has stopped work for the day. Thenext day another start message and possibly and stop messages is sent bythe mobile target network device 12 to indicate the server networkdevice 20 should again record the workers 118 time.

Using application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device 20,management workers have the ability to run a report that identifies howlong a drive time is associated with each worker 118, 118′, 118″, etc.completing new work projects in the field and their time to complete theassigned new work project. This also aggregates and shows a totalanticipated hours for each day's assignments. There are features thatwill analyze this data as work is completed and send s notification tothe management worker indicating that the worker 118 completing the newwork project has too much work or too little work in place for them. Theapplication 30′, 62′, 64′ also can be programming to include any processstep that a company follows to complete each new work project so workers118 are required to provide confirmation they have followed the processsteps specified on each new work project that they complete. Themanagement workers of the company have the ability to run reporting orcan receive alerts from the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the servernetwork device 20 if the process step are not followed or are altered bya worker 118. However, the present invention is not limited to thisembodiment and other embodiments can be used to practice the invention.

At Step 104, a project completion message is received on the application30′ 62′, 64′ on the server network device 20 via the communicationsnetwork 18 from the mobile target network device 12 when the worker 118has completed the new project. The project completion message includes asecond digital photograph 132 of the new project after the new projectwas completed. The second digital photograph 132 may be replaced by asecond video, etc.

In one embodiment, the application 30′, 62, 64′ on the server networkdevice 20 stores the location of the worker 118 in the field when thenew work project is completed. The distance the location of the new workproject to the actual location of the worker 118 when the worker 118completed the new work project is calculated and stored. Managementworkers receive alerts and notifications if the user was not within acertain physical distance of the project when it was completed. Thishelps management workers detect fraudulent activities by the workers118.

In one embodiment, to further prevent fraud by a work 118, there is anembedded image or Uniform Resource Locator (URL) included in every newproject that is completed that is not visible to the worker 118. Eachtime this image is viewed (i.e., whenever a record is opened) and calledfrom the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device, itlaunches a process to identify the location of the worker's GPS deviceand determines if the work is at the projection location or not. If theworkers 118 are located at the project location, the application 30′,62′, 64′ will record a start time of the new work project. There is afield included on a database entry for each new work project to identifyan amount of time it is projected take to complete a new work that canbe entered by a management work or a default value can be entered andstored in this field for all workers. However, the present invention isnot limited to this embodiment and other embodiments can be used topractice the invention.

The application will monitor the worker's 118 time spent on the newproject and if the worker 118 exceeds the duration of time entered intothe new project record the icon utilized to identify the worker 188 onthe electronic map 114 will change to indicate that the worker has beenon the new project longer than anticipated. The application 30′, 62′ 64′also has the capability to send a text message to the worker 118 if theworker 118 has exceeded the allotted time on the new project and todocument the reason for the delay. When the worker 118 responds to thetext message the application 30′, 62′, 64′ will store their response ina field as part of the new project record field. The business maydetermine the cause for such delay or application may also include delaycharges as necessary on the final invoice that was calculated. However,the present invention is not limited to this embodiment and otherembodiments can be used to practice the invention.

Using the embedded image or URL to invoke the GPS query described aboveif the application 30′, 62′, 64′ determines that the worker's 118 GPSdevice is physically located near the coordinates for the new workproject, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ will write the start time of thenew work project to a field located in the new project database record.The application 30′, 62′, 64′ also identifies the completion time of anew project and a time that worker 118 has changed the status of the newproject and closed out the new project record in the database. Theapplication 30′, 62′, 64′ performs an analytical analysis on eachcompleted new work project to determine an actual time a worker 118spent completing the work associated with the new project. Such analyticdata is used to create time sheets for the worker 118 and is also usedto adjust time requirements for similar projects or for a selectedworker 118. However, the present invention is not limited to thisembodiment and other embodiments can be used to practice the invention.

At Step 106, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device20 automatically verifies the new project has been completed with thetracked amount of time 136 and/or one or more other factors the mobiletarget network device 12 and the worker 118 was located at thedetermined physical geographic location 116 of the new project and/or bycomparing the first digital photograph 130 to the second digitalphotograph 132. The one or more other factors include, but are notlimited to, an amount of materials used (e.g., telephone wire, CATVcables, building materials, fuel, fertilizer, etc.) an amount of networkconnect and/or network test time used, an amount of time a street isblocked, a manhole cover is off, etc.

Step 106 uses telemetry and/or telemetrics. “Telemetry” or “telemetrics”is a technology that allows data measurements (e.g., GPS, elapsed time,etc.) to be made from a distance. Although the term commonly refers towireless data transfer mechanisms (e.g. using radio, hypersonic orinfrared systems), it also encompasses data transferred over other wiredmedia such as a telephone or computer network, optical link or otherwired communications networks (e.g., PSTN, CATV, Internet, etc.).

The second digital photograph 132 is stored in the database 20′ andexamined. Any new objects (e.g., new telephone lines, CATV cables, newstructures, new objects, etc.) are automatically added to the electronicmap 114. This save time and money when new work orders 11 are generatedfor the same street address or close-by location as a worker is alwaysprovided with an up-to-date electronic map 114 of objects relevant forthe new work order 11. Such analytics result in cost savings of tens tohundreds of millions of dollars annually as proper workers can beefficiently dispatched on optimal routes without wasting time, fuel,resources, etc.

In another embodiment, the second application 30, 62, 64 on the mobiletarget network device 12 allows objects to be located and displayed onthe electronic map 114 in real-time.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram 142 illustrating a graphical user interface144 for smart phone 14. The GUI 142 is generated and displayed by thesecond application 30, 62, 64 on the mobile target network device (e.g.,smart phone 14, etc.) The GUI 144 includes a Start Time graphical button146, a Stop Time graphical button 148, a My Next Project graphicalbutton 150, a GPS mark object graphical button 152 a biometricPhotograph object graphical button 154 and an optional Biometric scanner156. However, the present invention is not limited to a smart phone 14,the graphical buttons or scanners described and more, fewer or othertypes of buttons and scanners can used to practice the invention. Inaddition, the GUI 144 can be used on mobile target network devices otherthan smart phones 14.

In one embodiment, the My Next Project graphical button 150 allows awork 118 to request a new project and also is a display area on the GUI144 to allow a worker to receive information in real-time about a newproject.

In one embodiment, the GUI 144 allows the worker 118 the capability topress a graphical button when viewing their projects on the mobiletarget network device 12 to then have the coordinates of next new workproject to be automatically sent to the worker's 118 navigation device(e.g., portable stand alone GPS unit with Wi-Fi or cellular phone basedGPS service (i.e. VZ Navigator), etc.) without the working 118 having totype in the location coordinates. This feature prevents the worker 118from typing in the GPS locations for each new work project and allows itto automatically appear in any GPS device integral to, or associatedwith (i.e., separate from) the mobile target network device 12. However,the present invention is not limited to this embodiment and otherembodiments may be used to practice the invention.

In one embodiment, the second application 30, 62, 64 as smart phoneapplication for smart phones 14 and tablet computers 12, etc. allows theworker to take a survey picture/video and/or determine a GPS locationwhich stores a latitude/longitude of the mobile target network device 12and worker 118 entered characteristics of the physical geographiclocation. There are tags included where the worker 118 can identify thepicture and/or video is a start point, end point or midpoint of the newwork project. These survey picture/videos are then uploaded to theapplication 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device 20 and a processis initiated that connect the data based on the user entered tags.However, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment andother embodiments may be used to practice the invention.

As an example, a series of utility poles can be surveyed with the secondapplication 30, 62, 64 on the mobile target network device and thenautomatically plotted onto the electronic map 114 with geospatialinformation tagged to the graphical icons displayed on the electronicmap 114. Another example is that a contractor can place a newmanufacturing line for a customer and then walk over and store surveypoints in a factory including the manufacturing line which willautomatically update the electronic map 114 for the customer'sfacilities. However, the present invention is not limited to thisembodiment and other embodiments may be used to practice the invention.

As another example, example, using GUI 144 on smart phone 14, a workerwho was installing a new telephone wire could mark the location of atelephone pole and a service closet to connect the new telephone wireinto. The GPS coordinates or other types of map coordinates of theobjects are recorded in real-time by the worker 118 and the recordedobjects automatically appear on the electronic map 114 in real-time asthe worker 118 marks them. The recorded objects are also stored forfuture use. Such real-time marking of relevant objects saves time, moneyresources and increases the speed, efficiency and decreases the cost ofcomplete current and future new work orders 11.

When completing work assignments workers 118 update custom databasefields to provide a status (as defined by management users: e.g., open,routed, completed, pending, etc) and enter notes and amounts of workthat are completed on the new project.

Workers that are completing a new work project have the ability to takeany other types of necessary photos and/or video and/or upload documentsassociated with the work that will be maintained with the new workproject database entries.

Returning to FIG. 5D, at Step 108, an electronic invoice 138 isautomatically generated from the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the servernetwork 20 device for completion of the new project. The electronicinvoice 138 is checked for errors and reconciled with the original newwork order 11 to ensure a proper electronic invoice is generated.

At Step 110, the generated electronic invoice 138 is automatically sentfrom the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device 20 viathe communications network 18 back to the requesting network device 22for payment.

As workers 118 complete work and change new project database records,the application 30′, 62′, 64′ sends a notification via email orfacsimile indicating that the tasks associated with that new workproject have changed. The application 30′, 62′, 64′ automaticallyanalyzes the records and when certain criteria are met (as defined byusers) the application 30′, 62′, 64′ will generate an invoice bycomparing the record to user defined criteria and return a result ofwhich billing items are applicable. The application 30′, 62′, 64′ willgenerate an invoice based on these criteria automatically.

In one embodiment workers 118 have the capability of defining a highprofile location on the electronic map using a grid system. Each Projectis then compared to the high profile locations programmatically and therecords are updated to identify if there it is a high profile locationor not. As worker's 118 complete the work associated with projects agrid system is updated to show the work that was completed. The grid iscolor coded to indicate the result of the project that was performed.

The application 30′, 62′, 64′ automatically analyzes all of the database20′ records and automatically updates the grid. There is also a featurein the application 30′, 62′, 64′ to update based on the type of workbeing received and workers 118 can manually update the grid system todetermine when future records that are received are compared to the gridsystem and a result is stored as part of the project record.

This process is intended to analyze the work being completed by theusers and gain accuracy and efficiency by not dispatching users to areasthat have minimal work. This part of the application 30′, 62′, 64′ canalso be used to monitor result of a sales organization as an example.They can define a targeted territory and automatically update based onthe sales that are received to show how effective a campaign was in aparticular region of the map.

Analytics are collected and stored for the new project and the workerwho completed the new project. By recording the results of the projects,worker 118 time and locations a series of reports is automaticallygenerated by the application 30′, 62′, 64′ showing management workersthe productivity and performance of the workers and providing essentialintelligence reporting to managing the open projects.

Basic work project information can be parsed from database 20′. Thisprovides a new business with several solutions to operate theirbusiness. The new business may set up territories so that its employees(users/workers) then receive automatic assignment of any work withinthat territory. The new business may then see and track the status ofeach project.

In one embodiment, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ includes an automaticmirror process which makes a secondary copy of the database 20′ dataonto another server network device 22, 24, several times per hour. Thereis also a process in place to view the archived information and send itback to the main operational database in the event data is lost orcorrupted.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a Method 158 for automated workproject management. At Step 160, one or more object location messagesare received on the application on the server network device via thecommunications network from the second application on the mobile targetnetwork device located at the determined physical geographic location ofthe new project. The one or more object location messages includephysical location information for one or more relevant objectsdetermined in real-time with the mobile target network device. At Step162, the application on the server network device stores determinedphysical location information of the one or more objects in the databaseassociated with the server network device. At Step 164, the applicationon the server network device displays in real-time on the electronic mapa graphical object indicating the determined physical location for theone or more relevant objects.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram 166 illustrating additional details of Method158 of FIG. 8.

Method 158 is illustrated with one exemplary embodiment. However, thepresent invention is not limited to this embodiment and otherembodiments can also be used to practice the invention.

In such an exemplary embodiment at Step 160 one or more object locationmessages are received on the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the servernetwork device 20 via the communications network 18 from the secondapplication 30, 62, 64 on the mobile target network device 14 located atthe determined physical geographic location of the new project. The oneor more object location messages include physical location informationfor one or more relevant objects determined in real-time with the mobiletarget network device 14.

For example, a worker 118 at the determined physical geographic locationof the new project may have a new work order 11 to install a newtelephone line. The worker 118 sends GPS locations and photographsand/or video in separate messages using graphical buttons 152 and 154 ofGUI 114 (FIG. 7) of a telephone pole 168 (FIG. 9), a service closet 170and a building entrance 172 at Step 160.

At Step 162, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device20 stores determined physical location information of the one or moreobjects in the database 20′ associated with the server network device20. Such data is additional analytics that are used for current andfuture projects.

At Step 164, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device20 displays in real-time on the electronic map 114 a graphical objectindicating the determined physical location for the one or more relevantobjects 168, 170, 172 (FIG. 9).

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating a Method 174 for automated workproject management. At Step 176, one or more object location messagesare sent from the second application on the mobile target network devicelocated at the determined physical geographic location of the newproject via the communications network to the application on the servernetwork device. The one or more object location messages includephysical location information for one or more relevant objectsdetermined in real-time with the mobile target network device. At Step178, one or more digital photographs are sent from the secondapplication on the mobile target network device located at thedetermined physical geographic location of the new project via thecommunications network to the application on the server network device.At Step 180, the second application on the mobile target network devicedisplays in real-time the electronic map including one or more newgraphical objects indicating the determined physical location for eachof the one or more relevant objects.

Method 174 is illustrated with one exemplary embodiment. However, thepresent invention is not limited to this embodiment and otherembodiments can also be used to practice the invention.

In such an exemplary embodiment at Step 176, one or more object locationmessages are sent from the second application 30, 62, 64 on the mobiletarget network device 12 located at the determined physical geographiclocation of the new project via the communications network 18 to theapplication 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device 20. The one ormore object location messages include physical location information forone or more relevant objects (e.g., 168, 170, 172, etc.) determined inreal-time with the mobile target network device 12.

At Step 178, one or more digital photographs 130, 132 are sent from thesecond application 30, 64, 64 on the mobile target network device 12located at the determined physical geographic location of the newproject via the communications network 18 to the application 30′, 62′,64′ on the server network device 20.

At Step 180, the second application 30, 62, 64 on the mobile targetnetwork device 12 displays in real-time the electronic map 114 includingone or more new graphical objects 168, 170, 172 indicating thedetermined physical location for each of the one or more relevantobjects.

The second application 30, 62, 64 on the mobile target network devicesprovides access to database 20′ via the communications network 18 todownload data from the server network device 20 and store it locally onmobile target network device 12.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrating a Method 182 for automated workproject management. At Step 184, the new electronic work order issecurely received on the application on the server network device viathe communications network from the requesting network device, whereinthe electronic work order includes the new project to be completed. AtStep 186, the application on the server network device queries thedatabase associated with the server network device to determine if thenew work order can be completed at the determined physical geographiclocation. If not, at Step 188, the new work order is canceled oradjusted based on the database query. At Step 190, the application onthe server network device securely sends an adjust message via thecommunications network back to the requesting network device indicatingthe new work order has been adjusted or canceled.

Method 182 is illustrated with one exemplary embodiment. However, thepresent invention is not limited to this embodiment and otherembodiments can also be used to practice the invention.

At Step 184, the new electronic work order 11 is securely received onthe application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device 20 via thecommunications network 18 from the requesting network device (12, 14,16, 22, 24, etc.) the electronic work order includes the new project tobe completed.

At Step 186, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device20 queries the database 20′ associated with the server network device 20to determine if the new work order can be completed at the determinedphysical geographic location 117.

If not, at Step 188, the new work order 11 is canceled or adjusted basedon the database query.

At Step 190, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ on the server network device20 securely sends an adjust message via the communications network 18back to the requesting network device (12, 14, 16, 22, 24, etc.)indicating the new work order 11 has been adjusted or canceled.

If the new work order can be completed, at Step 192, Method 80 is calledat Step 84 and the remaining steps of Method 80 are executed as isdiscussed above.

For example, the application 30′, 62′, 64′ can automatically determinebased on the database query if the work should be dispatched to a worker118 or not, can automatically modify or close the new work assignment,automatically send a notification and generate an invoice.

In this example if a utility has only aerial lines in an area and nounderground lines and a new work order 11 was received to place anunderground line in this area the database query would be used todetermine if the new work order should be modified or canceled. The newwork order 11 may be modified if a mistake was made about the locationof existing lines in the area.

However, if the new work order 11 was indeed for a new underground line,the new work order would not be modified or canceled. In such asituation, the database 20′ would be updated to reflect the location ofnew underground lines the electronic map 114 would be updated inreal-time to also reflect the change.

However, if the new work order included a project came in to mark anunderground line and it was in an area with no underground lines andonly aerial lines, then the new work order will be automaticallycanceled by the application 30′, 62′, 64′.

The methods and system described herein provide at least the following,advantages of the prior art, including, but not limited to: (1)Integration of GPS services to manage project completion not report onfleet or driving conditions; (2) Using GPS to calculate actual job timeand to determine if user defined criteria relating the allotted time tocomplete a project has been exceeded; (3) Notification of managementworkers of delay and programmatically contacting the delayed user andrecording user feedback on what caused the delay; (4) Automaticallyupdating electronic mapping based on work records and new workassignments and performing analysis to determine if workers should besent to the location of a new assignment or not; (5) Using a smart phoneGPS, electronic table GPS or handheld GPS to provide feedback or asketch of what was performed at a location of work and uploading to GISor real-time electronic mapping to show all data collected on the mobiledevice with user defined attributes; (6) Allows workers togeographically sequence the assigned records from their current locationwith press of a button. If work assignments change it is one press of abutton to get a new sequenced route to maximize productivity. Thissolution has integrated functionality so all worker assigned records areautomatically sequenced. (7) Graphical buttons on a smart phone, etc.GUI that a worker can press to automatically send their next location ofwork to a cellular GPS Navigation without having to type in the worklocation; and (8) Using text messaging and WR technology with theapplications to assist with dispatching workers to work assignmentsafter determining the distance the worker is away from a work assignmentby using the GPS and for contacting and interacting with customers; (9)Combines GPS and a workflow solution into one powerful application thatcan be used in a cloud computing environment; (10) Allows users to trackthe progress of the work and receive alerts if the project is notproceeding as planned not just identify the vehicle location andpowerful reporting capabilities from this information; (11) Creates asavings cycle for workers by learning territories and developingintelligence to compare future work against previous work which canprevent future dispatches or provide real-time results comparing to mapand grid system; (12) Creates an easy to use feature to provide worktaking place which can be used to update other legacy programs; (13)Uses text messages and IVR to dispatch work and receive confirmationeliminates the need for people to monitor emergency work received anddispatch it; (14) Dispatches work based on job location and vehiclelocation programmatically reduces the review time and increases responsetime; (15) Consistently calculates service time specified by the workerand the mileage and drive time it takes to complete assigned workprogrammatically and sending alerts if a worker has too much or toolittle work; and (16) Providing workers capability to geographicallysequence their work assignments from their current vehicle which reducestravel time and saves fuel and other resources.

The methods and systems described herein provides for a total end to endbusiness solution that will receive a data relating to a project, allowdispatching a job in a territory, allow quality assurance to be includedas part of the dispatch, automatically generate a bill for the project,and provide feedback to the business on improving its product orservice. The method and system allows users to view project locations,see their worker's progress in real-time against their projectlocations, perform analysis of the workers as they are completing theirprojects, track the personnel completing the assignments, provideautomatic time sheet and payroll management, provide reporting onproductivity, provide automatic billing process, analyze work and callworkers if certain criteria is met, allow workers to take GPSmeasurements of the work performed and translate that data back to amaster database, provide analytics of work performed to determine if auser should go to the location in the future if additional projects arereceived in that location.

Automated Project Management Excavation Mark-Out Verification

In most states, allowing below the surface excavation is a problembecause underground infrastructure components must be properly markedbefore excavation to avoid damage.

A crucial step in ensuring a proper mark out starts with the mark-outrequest. An accurate and complete mark out request reduces the time ittakes for an underground facility operator to respond to a mark outrequest. It also reduces the possibility of requesting a mark out forthe wrong location.

There are a number of was to submit a mark out request for excavation.One of the methods is using a web portal allowing an excavator to fillout the excavation request on line. The excavator logs into the website, fills out the minimal information required including a locationfor the excavation and manually picks map grids that overlay thelocation where the excavation is proposed.

Mistakes are often made when a user enters location information for theproposed excavation and when manually selecting map grids that overlaythe location where the excavation is proposed.

FIGS. 12A, 12B and 12C are a flow diagram illustrating a Method 194 forautomated project management excavation mark-out verification.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram 230 illustrating exemplary excavationmark-out verification.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram 236 illustrating exemplary excavationmark-out verification.

In FIG. 12A at Step 196, a new electronic excavation work order requestis received on a server application on a server network device with oneor more processors via a communications network from an application on anetwork device with one or more processors. The new electronicexcavation work order includes a request to excavate below a surfacelevel at a user-defined location while avoiding any existing undergroundutility infrastructure components at the user-defined location. The newelectronic excavation work order will cause one or more municipalitiesto be automatically notified of the request to excavate. The newelectronic excavation work order will cause one or more owners of theexisting underground utility infrastructure components at the determinedactual physical location to be automatically notified of the request toexcavate. The new electronic excavation work order will cause the one ormore owners of the existing underground utility infrastructurecomponents to mark or have marked, on the surface level preciselocations of all existing underground utility infrastructure componentsat the determined actual physical location. This thereby eliminates aneed for a user to correctly determine all required information for theuser-defined location, and reduces a possibility of the user requestingmarkings or excavating at a wrong location not including the determinedactual physical location. At Step 198, geographic information isautomatically determined for the user-defined location including anactual physical location on the server application with one or morequeries to other applications via the communications. At Step 200, oneor more municipalities that include the determined physical location areautomatically determined on the server application with one or morequeries to the other applications via the communications network. AtStep 202, determining automatically one or more owners of one or moreexisting underground utility infrastructure components that include thedetermined actual physical location on the server application with oneor more queries to the other applications via the communicationsnetwork. At Step 204, a correct street name and one or more name of oneor more other streets intersecting the determined street closest to thedetermined physical location are automatically determined on the serverapplication with queries to other applications via the communicationsnetwork. In FIG. 12B at Step 206, bounding box data is automaticallycalculated from the determined physical location on the serverapplication. The bounding box data includes a length, width and depthfor the request to excavate below the surface level at the determinedphysical location. At Step 208, the server application adds to thereceived new electronic excavation work order, the determined: (1)geographic information, (2) one or more municipalities, (3) one or moreowners of the existing underground utility infrastructure components,(4) street name, (5) one or more intersecting street names, (6)calculated bounding box data, and (7) the determined actual physicallocation, thereby creating a modified electronic excavation work order.At Step 210, the modified electronic excavation work order is sent fromthe server application via the communications network to the applicationon the network device. The application on the network device extractselectronic information from the modified electronic excavation workorder and automatically displays on a display component on the networkdevice the: (1) geographic information, (2) one or more municipalities,(3) street name, (4) one or more intersecting street names, (5) agraphical bounding box on a electronic map created from the calculatedbounding box data, and (6) the determined actual physical locationdetermined from the user defined location. In FIG. 12C at Step 212, theone or more municipalities and the one or more owners of the existingunderground utility infrastructure components of the proposed excavationfor the determined actual physical location are determined from themodified excavation work order on the server application. At Step 214,the modified electronic excavation work order is sent from the serverapplication via the communications network to one or more otherapplications on one or other network devices, each with one or moreprocessors comprising the determined one or more municipalities and thedetermined one or more owners of the existing underground utilityinfrastructure components with electronic notifications of the proposedexcavation and requesting marking on the surface level precise locationsof all existing underground utility infrastructure components at thedetermined actual physical location.

Method 196 is illustrated with one exemplary embodiment. However, thepresent invention is not limited to this embodiment and otherembodiments can also be used to practice the invention.

In such an exemplary embodiment, in FIG. 12A at Step 196, a newelectronic excavation work order request 15 (FIG. 1) is received on aserver application 30, 62′ on a server network device 20 with one ormore processors via a communications network 18, 18′ from an application30, 62 on a network device 12, 14, 16 (e.g., 12, etc.) with one or moreprocessors. The new electronic excavation work order 15 includes arequest (e.g., from requester ABC Digging Co. 244 (FIG. 14), etc.) toexcavate below a surface level 218 at a user-defined location 220 (e.g.64^(th) Avenue, etc.) while avoiding any existing underground utilityinfrastructure components 222 (e.g., pipe, etc.) at the user-definedlocation 220. The new electronic excavation work order 15 will cause oneor more municipalities 224 (e.g., Happy Town, etc.) to be automaticallynotified of the request to excavate at an actual physical location 226(e.g., 5008 63^(rd) Avenue, N40° 44.9064′, W73° 59.0735′, etc.)determined for the user-defined location 220. The new electronicexcavation work order 15 will cause one or more owners 222′ of theexisting underground utility infrastructure components 222 at thedetermined actual physical location 226 to be automatically notified ofthe request to excavate. The new electronic excavation work order 15will cause the one or more owners 222′ of the existing undergroundutility infrastructure components 222 to mark or have marked, on thesurface level 218 precise locations of all existing underground utilityinfrastructure components 222 at the determined actual physical location226. This thereby eliminates a need for a user to correctly determineall required information for the new electronic excavation work order15, and reduces a possibility of the user requesting markings orexcavating at a wrong location not including the determined actualphysical location 226.

In one embodiment, the existing underground utility infrastructurecomponents include, but are not limited to, water, gas, electric,sanitary sewer, waste water, drainage, heating, ventilation airconditioning (HVAC), or communications network, or structural,underground utility infrastructure components.

However, the present invention is not limited to the utilityinfrastructure components described and more, fewer or other types ofutility infrastructure components can be used to practice the invention.

In one embodiment, Methods 80 (FIG. 5) and/or 182 (FIG. 11) are used atStep 196 and/or with or after other steps of Method 194 to furtherverify the new electronic excavation work order request 15 can becompleted.

However, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment and theinvention including Method 196 can be practiced without Methods 80and/or 182.

At Step 198, geographic information 228 (FIG. 1) is automaticallydetermined for the user-defined location 220. Determining the geographicinformation 228 includes determining an actual physical location 226(e.g., N40° 44.9064′, W73° 59.0735′, etc.) of the proposed excavationsite, on the server application 30′,62′ with one or more queries toother applications via the communications network 18,18′.

In one embodiment, the geographic information 228 includes, but is notlimited to, geographic information includes Global Positioning Satellite(GPS) data such as longitude, latitude, elevation, depth, etc. (e.g.,N40° 44.9064′, W73° 59.0735′, etc.), Geo-coding data, electronic mapdata, three-dimensional (3D) (X, Y, Z) geo-coordinate data, or mobilephone cell tower location information data. However, the presentinvention is not limited to the geographic information described andmore, fewer or other types of geographic information can be used topractice the invention.

In one embodiment, the one or more queries include one or more queriesto one or more local databases 20′ associated with the server networkdevice 20. In another embodiment, the one or more queries include one ormore queries to one or more remote databases 22′, 24′, 26′ or remotedatabases such as, federal, state, county, local databases, remoteweb-sites, GOOGLE search engine, other search engines, GOOGLE MAPS,MAPQUEST, etc.

However, the present invention is not limited to the one or more queriesdescribed and more, fewer or other types of queries can be used topractice the invention.

At Step 200, one or more municipalities 224 (FIGS. 1 and 13) (e.g. HAPPYTOWN, etc.) that include the determined actual physical location 226 areautomatically determined on the server application 30′, 62′ with one ormore queries to the other applications via the communications network18.

In one embodiment, the one or more queries include one or more queriesto one or more local databases 20′ associated with the server networkdevice 20. In another embodiment, the one or more queries include one ormore queries to one or more remote databases 22′, 24′, 26′ or remotedatabases such as, federal, state, county, local databases, remoteweb-sites, GOOGLE search engine, other search engines, GOOGLE MAPS,MAPQUEST, etc.

However, the present invention is not limited to the one or more queriesdescribed and more, fewer or other types of queries can be used topractice the invention.

At Step 202, one or more owners 222′ (e.g., Happy Town Water District222′ owner of water pipe 222, FIG. 14, etc.) of one or more existingunderground utility infrastructure components 222 that include thedetermined actual physical location 226 on the server application 30′,62′ with one or more queries to the other applications 30, 62 via thecommunications network 18, 18′.

In one embodiment, the one or more queries include one or more queriesto one or more local databases 20′ associated with the server networkdevice 20. In another embodiment, the one or more queries include one ormore queries to one or more remote databases 22′, 24′, 26′ or remotedatabases such as, federal, state, county, local databases, remoteweb-sites, GOOGLE search engine, other search engines, GOOGLE MAPS,MAPQUEST, etc.

However, the present invention is not limited to the one or more queriesdescribed and more, fewer or other types of queries can be used topractice the invention.

At Step 204, a street name 220′ (e.g., 5008 63^(rd) Avenue, etc.) of astreet closest to the determined physical location 226 and one or morenames of one or more other streets 232 (e.g., FIG. 13, Main Street,etc.) intersecting the correct street 220′ closest to the determinedactual physical location 226 are automatically determined on the serverapplication 30′, 62′ with one or more queries to the other applicationsvia the communications network 18. In this example, the original streetname 220 of “5008 64^(th) Avenue” (FIG. 1), which was incorrectlyentered by a user is automatically corrected to the correct street name220′ of “5008 63^(rd) Avenue” (FIGS. 13, 14).

In one embodiment the determined street name 220′ includes a street nameand street number (e.g. 5008 63^(rd) Avenue, etc.). In anotherembodiment, the determined street name 220′ only includes a street name(e.g., 63^(rd) Avenue, etc.). However, the present invention is notlimited to the street names described and more, fewer or other types ofqueries can be used to practice the invention.

In one embodiment, the one or more queries include one or more queriesto one or more local databases 20′ associated with the server networkdevice 20. In another embodiment, the one or more queries include one ormore queries to one or more remote databases 22′, 24′, 26′ or remotedatabases such as, federal, state, county, local databases, remoteweb-sites, GOOGLE search engine, other search engines, GOOGLE MAPS,MAPQUEST, etc.

However, the present invention is not limited to the one or more queriesdescribed and more, fewer or other types of queries can be used topractice the invention.

In one embodiment, the determined street name 220′ is correct andidentical to a street name provided by the user. In another embodiment,the street name supplied by the user is incorrect (e.g., 5008 64^(th)Avenue, etc.). In such an embodiment, any incorrect street name isautomatically corrected by server application 30′, 62′ to a correctstreet name (e.g., 5008 63^(rd) Avenue, etc.).

In many instances, the street name provided by a user is incorrect. Forexample, the user may provide a street name of “5008 64^(th) Avenue” butthe actual street name is “5008 63^(rd) Avenue.” In addition, in manyinstances the street name provided by the user may be a vanity streetname and not the actual street name. For example, the user may provide avanity street name of “1 Waterfront Plaza,” when the actual street nameis “5008 63^(rd) Avenue.”

In FIG. 12B at Step 206, bounding box 234 data (FIG. 13) isautomatically calculated from the determined actual physical location226 on the server application 30′, 62′. The bounding box 234 dataincludes a length, width, depth and other information for the request toexcavate below the surface level 218 at the determined actual physicallocation 226 (bounding box 234 from bounding box 234 data not drawn toscale in FIG. 13).

At Step 208, the server application 30′, 62′ adds to the received newelectronic excavation work order 15, the determined: (1) geographicinformation 228, (2) one or more municipalities 224, (3) one or moreowners 222′ of the existing underground utility infrastructurecomponents 222, (4) street name 220, (5) one or more intersecting streetnames 232, (6) calculated bounding box data 234, and (7) the determinedactual physical location 226, thereby creating a modified electronicexcavation work order 15′

At Step 210, the modified electronic excavation work order 15′ is sentfrom the server application 30′, 62′ via the communications network 18,18′ to the application 30, 62 on the network device 12. The application30, 62′ on the network device 12 extracts electronic information fromthe modified electronic excavation work order 15′ and automaticallydisplays on a display component 238 on the network device 12 the: (1)geographic information 228, (2) one or more municipalities 224, (3)street name 220, (4) one or more intersecting street names 232, (5) agraphical bounding box 242 (FIG. 14) on an electronic map created fromthe calculated bounding box 234 data, and (5) the determined actualphysical location 226 determined from the user defined location.

In one embodiment, the electronic maps includes a two-dimensional (2D)graphical map (FIGS. 13 and 14, etc.), three-dimensional (3D) graphicalmap, or a photographic map 246 (FIG. 14, etc.) including one or moredigital photographs.

However, the present invention is not limited to the electronic mapsdescribed and more, fewer or other types of electronic maps can be usedto practice the invention.

FIG. 14 illustrates exemplary content of an original electronicexcavation work order 15, 238 sent by the ABC Digging Company fromapplication 30, 62 on network device 12 to the server application 30, 62on server network device 12 and the modified electronic excavation workorder 15′, 240 as received and displayed on the network device 12 fromthe server network device in the requester 244 (e.g., ABC DiggingCompany, etc.).

However, the present invention is not limited to the display informationdescribed and illustrated and more, fewer or other types of displayinformation can be used to practice the invention.

In FIG. 12C at Step 212, the one or more municipalities 224 and the oneor more owners 222′ of the existing underground utility infrastructurecomponents 222 of the proposed excavation for the determined actualphysical location 226 are determined from the modified excavation workorder 15′ on the server application 30′, 62′.

At Step 214, the modified electronic excavation work order 15′ is sentfrom the server application 30′, 62′ via the communications network 18,18′ to one or more other applications 30, 62, 30′, 62′ on one or othernetwork devices 12, 14, 16, 22, 24, 26, each with one or more processorscomprising the determined one or more municipalities 224 and thedetermined one or more owners 222′ of the existing underground utilityinfrastructure components 222 with electronic notifications of theproposed excavation and requesting marking on the surface level 218precise locations of all existing underground utility infrastructurecomponents 222 at the determined actual physical location 226.

In one embodiment, Method 194 further includes additional Step 215 of:requesting marking on the surface level 218 precise locations of allexisting underground utility infrastructure components 222 at thedetermined actual physical location 226.

However, the present invention is not limited the additional stepdescribed and the invention can be practice without additional Step 215.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram illustrating a Method 250 for automatedproject management excavation mark-out verification. At Step 252, a newelectronic excavation work order request is received on a serverapplication on a server network device with one or more processors via acommunications network from an application on a network device with oneor more processors. At Step 254, the server application verifies andcorrects if necessary, excavation information input by a user into thenew electronic excavation work order. At Step 256, the serverapplication determines one or more municipalities and one or more ownersof the existing underground utility infrastructure components of theproposed excavation. At Step 258, the server application creates amodified electronic excavation work order from including the verifiedand corrected excavation information and the determined one or moremunicipalities and one or more owners of the existing undergroundutility infrastructure components of the proposed excavation. At Step260, the server application sends the modified electronic excavationwork order via the communications network to one or more otherapplications on one or other network devices, each with one or moreprocessors, comprising the determined one or more municipalities and thedetermined one or more owners of the existing underground utilityinfrastructure components with electronic notifications of the proposedexcavation and requesting marking on the surface level precise locationsof all existing underground utility infrastructure components.

Method 250 is illustrated with one exemplary embodiment. However, thepresent invention is not limited to this embodiment and otherembodiments can also be used to practice the invention.

In such an exemplary embodiment, at Step 252, a new electronicexcavation work order request 15 is received on a server application30′, 62′ on a server network device 20 with one or more processors via acommunications network 18, 18′ from an application 30, 62, 30′, 62′ on anetwork device 12, 14, 16, 22, 24, 26 (e.g., 12, etc.) with one or moreprocessors.

At Step 254, the server application 30′, 62′ verifies and corrects ifnecessary, excavation information input by a user into the newelectronic excavation work order 15.

In one embodiment, Methods 80 (FIG. 5) and/or 182 (FIG. 11) are used atStep 254 and/or with or after other steps of Method 250 to furtherverify the new electronic excavation work order request 15 can becompleted.

However, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment and theinvention including Method 250 can be practiced without Methods 80and/or 182.

At Step 256, the server application 30′, 62′, determines one or moremunicipalities 224 and one or more owners 222′ of the existingunderground utility infrastructure components 222 of the proposedexcavation.

At Step 258, the server application 30′, 62′ creates a modifiedelectronic excavation work order 15 from including the verified andcorrected excavation information and the determined one or moremunicipalities 224 and one or more owners 222′ of the existingunderground utility infrastructure components 222 of the proposedexcavation.

At Step 260, the server application 30, 62′ sends the modifiedelectronic excavation work order 15′ via the communications network 18,18′ to one or more other applications 30, 62, 30′, 62′ on one or othernetwork devices 12, 14, 16, 22, 24, 26, each with one or moreprocessors, comprising the determined one or more municipalities 224 andthe determined one or more owners 222′ of the existing undergroundutility infrastructure components 222 with electronic notifications ofthe proposed excavation and requesting marking on the surface levelprecise locations of all existing underground utility infrastructurecomponents 222.

The methods and systems described herein provide automated excavationmark-out verification of a user request to excavate at a desiredlocation. User-defined excavation information is automatically verifiedand corrected if necessary. One or more municipalities and one or moreowners of the existing underground utility infrastructure components areautomatically notified of the request to excavate at the user-definedlocation. The method and system eliminate a need for a user to correctlydetermine all required information for user requested excavation, andreduces a possibility of the user requesting markings or excavating at awrong location.

It should be understood that the architecture, programs, processes,methods and It should be understood that the architecture, programs,processes, methods and systems described herein are not related orlimited to any particular type of computer or network system (hardwareor software), unless indicated otherwise. Various types of generalpurpose or specialized computer systems may be used with or performoperations in accordance with the teachings described herein.

In view of the wide variety of embodiments to which the principles ofthe present invention can be applied, it should be understood that theillustrated embodiments are exemplary only, and should not be taken aslimiting the scope of the present invention. For example, the steps ofthe flow diagrams may be taken in sequences other than those described,and more or fewer elements may be used in the block diagrams.

While various elements of the preferred embodiments have been describedas being implemented in software, in other embodiments hardware orfirmware implementations may alternatively be used, and vice-versa.

The claims should not be read as limited to the described order orelements unless stated to that effect. In addition, use of the term“means” in any claim is intended to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112, paragraph 6,and any claim without the word “means” is not so intended.

Therefore, all embodiments that come within the scope and spirit of thefollowing claims and equivalents thereto are claimed as the invention.

We claim:
 1. A method for automated work project management excavationmark-outs, comprising: receiving a new electronic excavation work orderrequest on a server application on a server network device with one ormore processors via a communications network from an application on anetwork device with one or more processors, wherein the new electronicexcavation work order includes a request to excavate below a surfacelevel at a user-defined location while avoiding any existing undergroundutility infrastructure components at the user-defined location, whereinthe new electronic excavation work order will cause one or moremunicipalities to be automatically notified of the request to excavate;wherein the new electronic excavation work order will cause one or moreowners of the existing underground utility infrastructure components atthe determined actual physical location to be automatically notified ofthe request to excavate, and wherein the new electronic excavation workorder will cause the one or more owners of the existing undergroundutility infrastructure components to mark or have marked, on the surfacelevel precise locations of all existing underground utilityinfrastructure components at the determined actual physical location,thereby eliminating a need for a user to correctly determine allrequired information for the excavation, and thereby reducing apossibility of the user requesting markings or excavating at a wronglocation not including the determined actual physical location;determining automatically on the server application geographicinformation for the user-defined location thereby determining the actualphysical location with one or more queries to other applications via thecommunications network; determining automatically on the serverapplication one or more municipalities that include the determinedactual physical location with one or more queries to the otherapplications via the communications network; determining automaticallyon the server application one or more owners of one or more existingunderground utility infrastructure components that include thedetermined actual physical location with one or more queries to theother applications via the communications network; determiningautomatically on the server application a street name of a streetclosest to the determined actual physical location and one or more namesof one or more other streets intersecting the determined street closestwith one or more queries to the other applications via thecommunications network; calculating automatically on the serverapplication bounding box data calculated from the determined actualphysical location, wherein the bounding box data includes a length,width and depth for the request to excavate below the surface level atthe determined physical location; adding on the server application tothe received new electronic excavation work order the determined: (1)geographic information, (2) one or more municipalities, (3) one or moreowners of the existing underground utility infrastructure components,(4) street name, (5) one or more intersecting street names, (6)calculated bounding box data, and (7) the determined actual physicallocation, thereby creating a modified electronic excavation work order;sending order from the server application the modified electronicexcavation work via the communications network to the application on thenetwork device, wherein the application on the network device extractselectronic information from the modified electronic excavation workorder and automatically displays on a display component on the networkdevice the: (1) one or more municipalities, (2) one or more owners ofthe existing underground utility infrastructure components (3) streetname, (4) one or more intersecting street names, (5) a graphicalbounding box on an electronic map created from the calculated boundingbox data, and (6) the determined actual physical location determinedfrom the user defined location; determining on the server applicationfrom the modified excavation work order the one or more municipalitiesand the one or more owners of the existing underground utilityinfrastructure components of the proposed excavation for the determinedactual physical location; and sending from the server application themodified electronic excavation work order via the communications networkto one or more other applications on one or other network devices, eachwith one or more processors comprising the determined one or moremunicipalities and the determined one or more owners of the existingunderground utility infrastructure components with electronicnotifications of the proposed excavation and requesting marking on thesurface level precise locations of all existing underground utilityinfrastructure components at the determined actual physical location. 2.A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein aplurality of instructions for causing one or more processor on one ormore network devices to execute the steps of: receiving a new electronicexcavation work order request on a server application on a servernetwork device with one or more processors via a communications networkfrom an application on a network device with one or more processors,wherein the new electronic excavation work order includes a request toexcavate below a surface level at a user-defined location while avoidingany existing underground utility infrastructure components at theuser-defined location, wherein the new electronic excavation work orderwill cause one or more municipalities to be automatically notified ofthe request to excavate; wherein the new electronic excavation workorder will cause one or more owners of the existing underground utilityinfrastructure components at the determined actual physical location tobe automatically notified of the request to excavate, and wherein thenew electronic excavation work order will cause the one or more ownersof the existing underground utility infrastructure components to mark orhave marked, on the surface level precise locations of all existingunderground utility infrastructure components at the determined actualphysical location, thereby eliminating a need for a user to correctlydetermine all required information for the excavation, and therebyreducing a possibility of the user requesting markings or excavating ata wrong location not including the determined actual physical location;determining automatically on the server application geographicinformation for the user-defined location thereby determining the actualphysical location with one or more queries to other applications via thecommunications network; determining automatically on the serverapplication one or more municipalities that include the determinedactual physical location with one or more queries to the otherapplications via the communications network; determining automaticallyon the server application one or more owners of one or more existingunderground utility infrastructure components that include thedetermined actual physical location with one or more queries to theother applications via the communications network; determiningautomatically on the server application a street name of a streetclosest to the determined actual physical location and one or more namesof one or more other streets intersecting the determined street closestwith one or more queries to the other applications via thecommunications network; calculating automatically on the serverapplication bounding box data calculated from the determined actualphysical location, wherein the bounding box data includes a length,width and depth for the request to excavate below the surface level atthe determined physical location; adding on the server application tothe received new electronic excavation work order the determined: (1)geographic information, (2) one or more municipalities, (3) one or moreowners of the existing underground utility infrastructure components,(4) street name, (5) one or more intersecting street names, (6)calculated bounding box data, and (7) the determined actual physicallocation, thereby creating a modified electronic excavation work order;sending order from the server application the modified electronicexcavation work via the communications network to the application on thenetwork device, wherein the application on the network device extractselectronic information from the modified electronic excavation workorder and automatically displays on a display component on the networkdevice the: (1) one or more municipalities, (2) one or more owners ofthe existing underground utility infrastructure components (3) streetname, (4) one or more intersecting street names, (5) a graphicalbounding box on an electronic map created from the calculated boundingbox data, and (6) the determined actual physical location determinedfrom the user defined location; determining on the server applicationfrom the modified excavation work order the one or more municipalitiesand the one or more owners of the existing underground utilityinfrastructure components of the proposed excavation for the determinedactual physical location; and sending from the server application themodified electronic excavation work order via the communications networkto one or more other applications on one or other network devices, eachwith one or more processors comprising the determined one or moremunicipalities and the determined one or more owners of the existingunderground utility infrastructure components with electronicnotifications of the proposed excavation and requesting marking on thesurface level precise locations of all existing underground utilityinfrastructure components at the determined actual physical location. 3.The method of claim 1 wherein the communications network includes acloud communications network comprising one or more public networks, oneor more private networks, one or more community networks or one or morehybrid networks and wherein the cloud communications network includeson-demand automatic secure automated project management mark-outservices and broadband network access, resource pooling, rapidelasticity and measured network services for cloud automated workproject management excavation marking services.
 4. The method of claim 3wherein the server application on the server network device, theapplication on the network device and the other applications on theother network devices provide a cloud computing Infrastructure as aService (IaaS), a cloud computing Platform, as a Service (PaaS) andoffers Specific cloud project management excavation verificationservices as a Service (SaaS) including a cloud software service, whereinthe IaaS, PaaS and SaaS include one or more of automated work projectmanagement excavation verification services comprising networking,storage, server network device, virtualization, operating system,middleware, run-time, data or application services, or pluralcombinations thereof, on the cloud communications network.
 5. The methodof claim 1 wherein communications via the communications network aresent and received securely using a Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP),Wireless-Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), Robust Security Network (RSN),Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Data Encryption Standard (DES),Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES), Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA),Message Digest-5 (MD-5), Electronic Code Book (ECB), Diffie and Hellman(DH), HyperText Transport Protocol Secure, (HTTPs), Secure Sockets Layer(SSL), or a Transport Layer Security (TLS) security method.
 6. Themethod of claim 1 wherein server network device, network device andother network devices include wireless networking interfaces comprisinga Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) wirelessnetworking interface with 4th generation (4G) wireless speeds or faster,for communicating with the communications network.
 7. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the application on the network device includes a smartapplication for a smart phone or a tablet computer network device. 8.The method of claim 1 further comprising: displaying in real-time fromthe application on the server network device or on the one or more otherapplications on the other network devices, an electronic map on amulti-windowed graphical user interface for viewing the modifiedelectronic excavation work order.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein theelectronic map includes a two-dimensional (2D) graphical map,three-dimensional (3D) graphical map, or a photographic map including aplurality of digital photographs.
 10. The method of claim 9 wherein thedetermining steps include making the one or more queries from the serverapplication with Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), eXtensible MarkupLanguage (XML), REpresentational State Transfer (REST), Simple ObjectAccess Protocol (SOAP), Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) orApplication Programming Interface (API) queries.
 11. The method of claim9 wherein the determining steps include making the one or more queriesfrom the server application via the communications network to one ormore databases local to the server network device or one or moredatabases remote to the server network device.
 12. The method of claim 1wherein the geographic information includes Global Positioning Satellite(GPS) data, Geo-coding data, electronic map data, three-dimensional (3D)(X, Y, Z) geo-coordinate data, or mobile phone cell tower locationinformation data.
 13. The method of claim 1 wherein the existingunderground utility infrastructure components include, water, gas,electric, sanitary sewer, waste water, drainage, heating, ventilation,air conditioning (HVAC), or communications network, or structural,underground utility infrastructure components.
 14. The method of claim 1further comprising: requesting marking on the surface level preciselocations of all existing underground utility infrastructure componentsat the determined actual physical location.
 15. The method of claim 1wherein the one or more queries to other applications via thecommunications network include one or more queries to one or more localdatabases, remote databases including federal, state, county, localgovernment databases, remote web-sites, GOOGLE search engine, othersearch engines GOOGLE MAPS, or MAPQUEST.
 16. The method of claim 1further comprising: querying from the server application on the servernetwork device a database associated with the server network device todetermine if the new electronic excavation work order request can becompleted at the determined actual physical geographic location, and ifnot, adjusting or canceling the new electronic excavation work orderrequest based on the database query; and sending an adjustment messagefrom the server application on the server network device via thecommunications network back to the application on the network deviceindicating the new electronic excavation work order request has beenadjusted or canceled.
 17. The method of claim 1 further comprising:receiving on the application on the network device via thecommunications network from the server application on the server networkdevice, the modified electronic excavation work order; extracting fromthe application electronic information from the modified electronicexcavation work order including the: (1) one or more municipalities, (2)one or more owners of the existing underground utility infrastructurecomponents (3) street name, (4) one or more intersecting street names,(5) a graphical bounding box on an electronic map created from thecalculated bounding box data, and (6) the determined actual physicallocation determined from the user defined location; and automaticallydisplaying from the application on the display component on the networkdevice the extract electronic information.
 18. The method of claim 1further comprising: sending a new electronic excavation work orderrequest from the application on the network device with one or moreprocessors via the communications network to the server application onthe server network device, wherein the new electronic excavation workorder includes a request to excavate below the surface level at theuser-defined location while avoiding any existing underground utilityinfrastructure components at the user-defined location and includesother excavation information input by the user.
 19. A system forautomated work project management excavation mark-outs, comprising incombination: a server application in a non-transitory computer readablemedium on a server network device with one or more processors; thenon-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein aplurality of instructions: for receiving a new electronic excavationwork order request on a server application on a server network devicewith one or more processors via a communications network from anapplication on a network device with one or more processors, wherein thenew electronic excavation work order includes a request to excavatebelow a surface level at a user-defined location while avoiding anyexisting underground utility infrastructure components at theuser-defined location, wherein the new electronic excavation work orderwill cause one or more municipalities to be automatically notified ofthe request to excavate; wherein the new electronic excavation workorder will cause one or more owners of the existing underground utilityinfrastructure components at the determined actual physical location tobe automatically notified of the request to excavate, and wherein thenew electronic excavation work order will cause the one or more ownersof the existing underground utility infrastructure components to mark orhave marked, on the surface level precise locations of all existingunderground utility infrastructure components at the determined actualphysical location, thereby eliminating a need for a user to correctlydetermine all required information for the excavation, and therebyreducing a possibility of the user requesting markings or excavating ata wrong location not including the determined actual physical location;for determining automatically on the server application geographicinformation for the user-defined location thereby determining the actualphysical location with one or more queries to other applications via thecommunications network; for determining automatically on the serverapplication one or more municipalities that include the determinedactual physical location with one or more queries to the otherapplications via the communications network; for determiningautomatically on the server application one or more owners of one ormore existing underground utility infrastructure components that includethe determined actual physical location with one or more queries to theother applications via the communications network; for determiningautomatically on the server application a street name of a streetclosest to the determined actual physical location and one or more namesof one or more other streets intersecting the determined street closestwith one or more queries to the other applications via thecommunications network; for calculating automatically on the serverapplication bounding box data calculated from the determined actualphysical location, wherein the bounding box data includes a length,width and depth for the request to excavate below the surface level atthe determined physical location; for adding on the server applicationto the received new electronic excavation work order the determined: (1)geographic information, (2) one or more municipalities, (3) one or moreowners of the existing underground utility infrastructure components,(4) street name, (5) one or more intersecting street names, (6)calculated bounding box data, and (7) the determined actual physicallocation, thereby creating a modified electronic excavation work order;for sending order from the server application the modified electronicexcavation work via the communications network to the application on thenetwork device, wherein the application on the network device extractselectronic information from the modified electronic excavation workorder and automatically displays on a display component on the networkdevice the: (1) one or more municipalities, (2) one or more owners ofthe existing underground utility infrastructure components (3) streetname, (4) one or more intersecting street names, (5) a graphicalbounding box on an electronic map created from the calculated boundingbox data, and (6) the determined actual physical location determinedfrom the user defined location; for determining on the serverapplication from the modified excavation work order the one or moremunicipalities and the one or more owners of the existing undergroundutility infrastructure components of the proposed excavation for thedetermined actual physical location; and for sending from the serverapplication the modified electronic excavation work order via thecommunications network to one or more other applications on one or othernetwork devices, each with one or more processors comprising thedetermined one or more municipalities and the determined one or moreowners of the existing underground utility infrastructure componentswith electronic notifications of the proposed excavation and requestingmarking on the surface level precise locations of all existingunderground utility infrastructure components at the determined actualphysical location.